Crossfit Tel Aviv

It's pretty crazy to me that we are coming up on four months of living out here. A third of a year?? Time flies.

I like to frequently take time to reflect and make note of what's worked, and what hasn't. What was harder than I expected when moving to a new country, and what was easier than expected.

It surprised me how difficult I found starting at a new gym to be.  It wasn't like in the past; I wasn't going into crossfit with zero experience, and (for the most part) I felt confident that I knew what I was doing.

I don't know if it was the occasional language barriers, the overwhelming-ness of the move as a whole, or what.  But for the first several weeks, every other time Andrew and I had plans to go workout at a certain time, I had an aggressive internal battle with myself around why I didn't want to go.

Yet the quote 'Life begins at the end of your comfort zone' has continued to hold true throughout this transition, and the gym was no different. It took awhile, a few moments of awakening, but it began to get easier.

One day while walking home from a workout in deep reflection, I realized something important.  And it's obvious, but it's something that I lost grasp of somewhere along the way, and I think it's something we as athletes all need to be reminded of.

The "rules" of crossfit aren't just something that are sacred to your gym, or your region, or even your country.  The rules and expectations of crossfit apply worldwide.

You cheer on every last teammate - even if you know damn well they may not know English - clapping works right?  And you don't put your equipment away until every teammate has finished the workout.

 You will continue to be pushed outside of your comfort zone, whether you are a new or old athlete, and you don't take that personally.

And there's no feeling sorry for yourself.  Which believe me, I had moments where I tried.  The extreme attention to the details of lifting form took me awhile to get used to (and not take personally) and eventually I've slowly come to appreciate and value it.

But I won't lie, there were frustrating moments that had me on the edge of tears.  

Slowly the coaches are getting to know me; when I'm being a baby about heavy weight and when I actually may need to scale.  Just last week I was encouraged to do Grace at Rx weight (which as a side note, figuring out what I'm actually lifting in Kgs vs. Lbs has also been a struggle) and I surprised myself by finishing under 7 mins.

Yet if I've really been shown anything the past four months, it's been that the one thing that sets CrossFit apart (worldwide) is the instant induction into a community that cares about you.  Whether you fluently speak the same language or not, have the same president or not, have the same goals or not.  Without what has come to be the safety net of a little gym on the beach to go to every day, be greeted warmly, and work with others towards getting better... this move would have been a hell of a lot harder.

Cheers - 

Kait

L&M

Here, my friends, is the recap of my weekend that brought me a whole lot of joy. Better late than never I suppose.

As mentioned last week, I traveled home to Chicago this past weekend for one of my best friend's - Lyndi's - wedding. It was beautiful, tastefully done, and the best part - everyone was there.

some of the crew

I don't talk much about my college volleyball career on here. I should - it honestly taught me so much. I don't often mention my volleyball teammates who were my sisters, and the baseball and soccer players who were my brothers. Our class had a very solid camaraderie in particular, it was honestly pretty awesome. We were a tight knit group of athletes at an already small DI school, and damnit we were proud to be Division I. We worked hard and practiced hard and played hard and sometimes studied hard... all the while having each other's backs, always.

Fall 2009

Fall 2013

Impressive what a little makeup can do eh?

But that internship with the Olympics whisked me to Colorado the final spring semester of my senior year, and Colorado overtook my life for the next two years or so.  I went off the grid and fell in love with the Rocky Mountains and kind of let them swallow me up. Colorado stole me for a solid two years, before moving to Baltimore (almost two years now WHAT).

Three years was far too long to go without seeing some of my closest college friends. And it took this weekend to remember that.

It was a wonderful affair – the wedding ceremony, the reception, the dancing, the post-reception live music. I text Lyndi, the bride, the next day thanking her for hosting such a perfect weekend. Perfect, because we were all together again, and so freaking happy. The best part of the day, and I think she would agree, was the amount of love that was present. A whole bunch of Bradley Alum came together to celebrate two of our own athletes who had made it past our safe college bubble into the real world, and it was genuinely a joyful evening.

It’s hard flying back east after being reminded of the supportive friends I have in the Midwest. It made me excited to return in December over the holidays and see what kind of shenanigans we can get into. Thank you Lyndi and Mikey, for putting on one hell of a party wedding. And thank you x50 for letting me share it with you.

This is a cheesy post, I know. I just can't help but think, as I sit here writing this, how important my friends will always continue to be to me. I love sharing weekends like this, and it definitely helped give me a bit of encouragement coming back to Baltimore for the final countdown.

August 2006

November 2013

Treasure the relationships you have in your life; they are precious, and most likely bring you more joy than you even realize.

Cheesiness, done. Make today great my friends.

Cheers -

K

The 21 Day Wrap Up

Well, I said I was going to write this post last night, but the truth is, I was in bed by 8 PM watching The Breakfast Club for my first time ever. Sorry I’m not sorry.

My 21-Day Sugar Detox is over. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but somehow it flew by. The first week felt like a month, and the second two weeks felt like two days. No joke.

source

Let me start by prefacing with this: I learned a lot. A lot about my body, food and the way my body responds to certain foods. I learned a lot about the Paleo Diet in general and the thought process behind it.

Let me clarify a few things. The 21-Day Sugar Detox (Level 1) is not 100% Paleo, as I was ‘allowed’ to eat full-fat dairy, and not allowed to eat most fruits. However, for the final week I tried to phase out most dairy, and slowly phase in a bit more fruit towards the end.

 This could get incredibly lengthy if I let it, so I won’t. But just know I'm passionate about this. I do want to share some final takeaways from these past three weeks, and reasons why I’m glad that I tried it out.

1. The #1 reason why I enjoyed it is, I knew exactly what I was putting into my body, on a daily basis. I literally knew just about every single ingredient that I was consuming, as it’s all about eating whole, real foods. None of that chemical processed crap.

2. Because of this, I didn’t really have to worry about ‘watching what I ate’ the past 3 weeks. I mean sure I was working out and running a lot, but it wasn’t about worrying over the calories in my meals/snacks, it was more about the content of what I was fueling with. And guess what? Without even trying, or wanting to, I lost weight following the detox rules.

My plantain paleo pancakes on the deck yesterday morning.
 Chocolate sauce & coconut as toppings.
SO.GOOD.

3. I wasn’t 100% perfect, and I’m not upset about it. The first week I caved and ate a mini cheesecake with my roommate at WholeFoods. Week 2 I had ice cream, and Week 3 I had a handful of m&m’s. See the pattern here? While these 3 weeks have definitely changed the way I see my diet, chocolate will never die out of my life. Ever. HOWEVER, discovering the fact that I can mix unsweetened cocoa with coconut oil for ‘clean chocolate sauce’ may have changed my life.

4. I missed my fruits. I LOVE fruit, and am excited to have that option again. I already ate a carton of raspberries today alone. However speaking of fruit, plantains have reached the top of my list of favorites. I’m so glad I discovered them as an option during the cleanse, and see them sticking around as a staple.

5. If you are an athlete/runner/competitor looking to try out the 21 Day Sugar Detox, make sure that you check out the ‘Athlete Modifications’ section. This was a life saver – once I discovered I could be eating more of the dense carbs listed in there, my training was able to return to its normal intensity levels.

 Moral of the story? I really, really like the paleo style of eating. I don’t love referring to it as the Paleo Diet because the word diet can have such a bad connotation. It’s far from a ‘diet’ because it’s really just a simplified way of eating. These diagrams helped me to see the differences between Paleo and clean eating:

                                

 I’m not looking to become some die-hard paleo phene. Technically paleo = no alcohol, no dairy, no grains. I would say on my average day to day, I would love to stay leaning more towards the paleo side of things, as it seemed to make my body happy doing so the past three weeks. Am I going to stop eating nachos and drinking beers on game day? No. Am I going to forever avoid cheese and ice cream and pizza? Absolutely not. I’m not going to be uptight at restaurants and ask what kind of oil my meat was cooked in, as this just isn’t a life or death matter for me.

But if it’s up to me, on a normal week day when I’m cooking for myself, I’ll stick to the paleo plan.

The paleo jalapeno poppers I made on Saturday...

I realize I’m a little out of the ordinary, and thinking that food experiments like this are ‘fun’ isn’t necessarily the norm… but if you’re looking to clean up your diet, trying to change the way you see food, and even make some positive changes to your body, I would honestly considering giving the 21 Day Sugar Detox a try. It definitely positively impacted me.

Would love to answer any questions or address any comments out there, feel free to ask away!

This girl's off to celebratory sushi with friends.

Cheers to good health!

Kait

I used to be an Olympian. Kind of.

I read something interesting the other day.

I read that recent Japanese research has found that ripe bananas (with brown spots) are actually really good for you, and have the ability to fight abnormal cells (cancer).

This intrigued me, mainly because I feel like ripe bananas tend to get a bad rap. Guilty as charged; I prefer them more on the green side versus brown. However, knowing this, when glancing at my bananas this morning when making a smoothie, I got happy that I was able to add some cancer-fighting action to my daily drink.

Anyways, what was this post suppose to be about? Oh yeah, how I used to by an Olympian.

Obviously that a semi-false statement. Let's correct it to be a little more true: I used to live, eat and train among Olympians. There we go.

whose that in the green ring? me.

I know I've mentioned this before, and that it's in the My Story section, but I couldn't help to feel extra proud while watching the opening ceremonies last night. Sidenote - did that opening sequence showing all of the amazing athletes make anyone else cry? #Guilty

Source

Spring 2010 I had the opportunity to intern at the Olympic Training Center out in Colorado Springs. It truly was a mind-blowing experience, even just to live in the dorms on the campus, dine at that state-of-the-art food hall three meals a day, and use the same workout facilities that some of these athletes we are watching over there in London used.

I got to swim in the same pool that Michael Phelps did.

No, that is not the pool.

Seriously though, aside from experiencing the sport administration side of things as an intern there, just seeing the day-to-day efforts these athletes put in was extremely humbling.

This is posted up at the Training Center. I love it.

Speaking of being humble, I've been trying to put forth effort the past two days in taking care of myself and listen to other's advice, and so have been doing all non-impact training. Yesterday I even managed to swim four consecutive laps in the pool, no stopping. I know that sounds easy, but for me it's not. I was quite proud.

I AM SO PROUD

So, as I sit here in my living room watching Phelps and Lochte tear it up in the pool over there with our Brit friends, I can't help but feel inspired to head over to the club and do some more laps today. I figure today should be fairly light, as I'll head out for 12 miles early tomorrow morning.

I can't remember the last time I ran 12 miles. Maybe sometime in May?

Cheers to a great weekend!