Your Whole Life Challenge Finals Crew!! Congrats Folks!!!
Wow, congrats EVERYONE who complete the 2012 Whole Life Challenge! We hope that you are walking away from this challenge an entirely different person than you were eight weeks ago! We’re still sorting out the numbers from the weekend and will be announcing the winner by the end of the day.
The results we saw on Saturday are mindblowing, far beyond what we expected as far as performance increases go. The stories we heard from people are also simply amazing. Hearing, “I can’t believe I was ever that heavy,” lets us know that for some people, they are now experiencing their time here on earth is a markedly different fashion than they were two months ago – and that is why we do this.
For all of you, all of us for that matter, this whole deal is a big win. There were eight Saturdays where you we all had decisions to make, numerous wedding, dinners, lunches, weekends, days when we wanted to throw the towel in, nights when we were tempted, and the like.
Most people that we know spent the last eight weeks living their regular lives, plugged into patterns and habits that are beyond their recognition, and therefor beyond their control. The only thing standing between self knowledge and self realization usually, is the conscious choice to accept discomfort into our lives. We commend everyone who put themselves out in the name of this crazy idea, we know how hard it was and we’re extremely proud of all of you.
I loved this challenge, and got a ton out of it. To be honest, after doing a few Paleo Challenges, Eric and I both knew how to game them. We knew how long they’d be, where to strategically cheat, but worse than that was when we were basically using them as four week clean-up sessions.
Although I eat primarily paleo all year long, this challenge had a much longer lasting effect. Starting right off of the bat there were no more cheat days. This was huge as it removed the separation between “cheat” and “non cheat”. Cheat meals usually meant that it was time to go all out and sprinkle some skittles on top of my triple cheeseburger – all held together by two pieces of lasagna. You get the picture.
Now that we were supposed to fail, and actually had to fail to get the most out of the program I was open to really learning, not just pushing through the discomfort associated with chips & salsa withdrawal.
I knew that a personal dietary shift had been made after Pier to Peak this year. Usually after an event like that for some asinine reason, I like to congratulate myself by eating as much poison as I can get into my system as a reward. (Interesting when you look at it that way huh?)
This year after the big event, I weighed the option of Arnoldi’s against sushi and chose sushi since sashimi was therefor also an option. I even ordered a steak after Day 4 Daisy when we also went to dinner to Arnoldi’s afterwards. As I said, fatigue or a big event usually throws my dietary rules in the rubbish bin*.
This was new and to me was huge. I really didn’t want to eat pasta, not because it wasn’t delicious, but more so because it makes me feel like a bag of ass for three days afterwards. This time around, it just wasn’t worth it.
I’ll take that as a huge win and still feel like eating wheat is going to be a very minimal part of my life. After 20 plus years of trying to find medical interventions that would let me eat it without issue, I’m just not going to eat the stuff.
The consistent rolling out and fish oil was a great help for my body and allowed for a huge increase in my pain free (afterwards) jiujitsu training. Awesome.
All in all I feel like I’m walking away with a much better understanding of my own health with regards to food and fitness and love it.
Please take a moment and share what you learned, what you experienced, and how you feel today. It’s these comments that really get to the heart of what we do so please share, both positive and negative.
*That’s for you Jut!
Today’s Workout:
Skill: Rope Climbs
Adv: L-sit rope climb
Workout:
4 x 3 Min AMRAP w/2 min rest
1 rope climb (adv L-Sit)
15 comp pushups
30 air squats
(continuous running count)
