Are you ready to transform your body composition, have more energy and improve your performance all at once? If you answer YES to those questions, then this one month nutritional challenge is for you. Here’s the rules of the game:

*Attend the LEANing food Nutrition talk with Dr. Ryan Lazarus on July 27. Details below
* Eating: Paleo
* Cost: $30.00 (cash) to be put into a kitty
* The kitty will be divided in 2 for a FEMALE winner and a MALE winner
* 3 ‘Before’ pictures taken: front view, side view and back view. Men are in shorts and Women are in shorts and sports bra/bikini top. Please make sure you get in the gym during the week preceding July 27 to get the pictures taken.
* Each Monday your food log for the previous week is emailed to our LEANing Yahoo Group
* Anyone can enter the LEANing challenge, but to win you must submit your food logs each week and you must be a member at Wine Country CrossFit
* 3 ‘After’ pictures are taken on August 27, 2010 (or no later than August 31st)
* Wine Country CrossFit  trainers pick the top 5 men and top 5 women whose body composition changed the most
* Summer LEANing participants vote on the top 10 to determine the Winners
* The 2 winners split the kitty in half and receive one month of unlimited classes at Wine Country CrossFit
* The pictures taken are PRIVATE. The pictures of the top 5 men and top 5 women will be viewed on paper at the gym to determine the winners. We promise not to publish or distribute anyone’s pictures without their permission

Whether or not you intend to participate in the Sumer LEANing Challenge, you won’t want to miss this 45 minute presentation by Dr. Ryan Lazarus. He is a type I diabetic who has managed to cease his insulin injections due to adherence to the Paleo diet.

Seats are limited, and cost $5 in advance, and $10 at the door. Don’t miss it!

Please see any trainer to sign up to attend.

If you get an inkling that your workout is really tough this week, I want you to keep a thought in the back of your head this week for your fellow Wine Country CrossFitter, Alex Kongsgaard.  Yesterday, Alex set off on quite an ambitious journey.  For the next 50 days, Alex will be traveling by way of outrigger canoe a grand total of 1200 miles from Seattle, WA all the way up to Glacier Bay, AK.  This is no doubt a fantastic feat which he has been preparing for over the last few years.  Packed along with him, he is only taking the most essential of gear, which he can carry in a single waterproof duffel bag. Since he is a strict Paleo eater, Alex took it upon himself to dehydrate a large amount of Paleo food to take with him on the beginning of the trip. (If you can’t read the note, it is a list of the following:20lb meat, 9 onions, 3 peppers, 3lbs mushrooms, 3 eggplant, 5 zucchini, 3 cauliflower, and 5 beets.

We would like to take a moment to wish Alex the best of luck and safe travels! 

If you are interested in seeing how his travels are going, Alex is wearing a tracking beacon, you can see his progress and messages that he is sending out at Find Me Spot.

So, you’ve been working on your double unders for a while now, and you think you’re pretty good with the old jump rope eh?

I have news for you; these little girls will knock your socks off!  Check out this video:

(It gets really good around the halfway point, trust me it’s worth watching the whole 8 minutes)

So…. I guess we have can keep working on that jump rope.

Thank you and great job to everyone who joined us for the Napa CRD Salmon Run this weekend. I think a great time was had by all, on a perfect-for-running, cool overcast morning. An extra congratulations to all of our decorated members too:

• Linda Cantillion took first in her age group,

• Von Boyenger took first in his age group, and

• Beth Rypins took 3rd in her age group.

Great job guys!  Keep your eyes here on the blog for our next event, and if there is an event you find and would like to compete in, please let me know so we can get a good group together.

-Ryan

Just a reminder guys, the Napa CRD Salmon Run 5 and 10K is tomorrow.  We will be meeting at 6:45 sharp at the gym and leaving immediately to get up to Yountville on time.  Registration opens at 7am with the race starting at 8am.  If you didn’t get a chance to register yet, they DO allow registration on the day of the event, so even if you aren’t registered, come and join us.  It promises to be a fun morning.

I look forward to seeing everyone bright and early!

-Ryan

To say that it is rare to find good quality information regarding nutrition and performance in the mainstream media would be an understatement, add in the fact that the author is from Men’s Health, and you can usually bet that there is an agenda.  Imagine my surprise when my wife sent me this article posted on Yahoo! yesterday, written by the Editor-In-Chief of Men’s Health:

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/truth-about-your-food

File this one as one more reason to go Paleo.

-Ryan

I know I have told you guys all about Paleo Kits before.  They are a fantastic way to keep eating Paleo while you are on the go, and maybe don’t have time to prepare a meal or snack.  Paleo Kits are a mixture of free range beef jerky, macadamia nuts, pecans, almonds, dried cranberries, and dried strawberries, all contained in a convenient single serving vacuum sealed bag which travels as well as any convenience food.  On top of knowing that you are doing something great for your body by staying Paleo, you can rest assured that your money is going to a good cause as well.  Steve’s Club (makers of Paleo Kits) is a not-for-profit organization that helps get inner city kids from Camden, NJ off the streets, and doing CrossFit.  What could be better?

Well, Steve’s Club has just introduced a new product that I tried for the first time last night.  It is called Paleo Krunch, and I have to tell you that it is amazing.  Paleo Krunch is a mixture of Coconut, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, grape seed oil, honey and vanilla extract.  All of these great things mixed (and my taste buds are saying toasted?) together make fantastic little crunchy clusters that are quite akin to granola or many cereals on the market.  The difference?  1 – This is all Paleo.  2 – This may actually taste better than any granola or cereal that I have ever had.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.  My one caution, would be to be careful with this stuff.  It is quite calorically dense.  I went through a full bag of it before looking at the back and realizing that I had just downed 1000 calories worth of the stuff.  The calories are mostly fat, so no worries there, but if fat loss is your main goal, you might want to go easy on such a dense food.

-Ryan

In just over two weeks Team Wine Country CrossFit has a chance to make another great showing.  The Napa Valley Resource Conservation District is holding the “Salmon Run”  in Yountville on Saturday, June 26th.  If you wanted to join us for Bay to Breakers, but couldn’t get there, you have a second chance!  You can’t get too much closer to home that this.  There are two races available to be entered, a 5K (just over 3 miles) and a 10K (just over 6 miles).  Check out their website for all relevant info and registration.  I know we have quite a few folks interested in running, and running better, here is your chance to get some practice in and have fun sweating with a bunch of new folks.  Reply to this post, or shoot me an email (ryan@wccrossfit.com) to let me know that you are participating.  We will come up with a good plan to get everyone together, and maybe some Paleo (or not?) lunch afterward.

Switching gears, Marco sent me this great link from CrossFit MPH in Washington D.C. all about injuries.  Check it out and let me know what you all think.

-Ryan

If you have been CrossFitting for awhile, you undoubtedly have developed some thick skin on your hands.  Unfortunately, even with perfect care for your calluses, when we have a big pull-up workout, like Angie yesterday, those calluses can tear (As many folks did).  Today I want to talk about what to do when you get a tear.

Damn You Angie!!!

Tears come in a couple of different forms.  When you are first getting your calluses established, the tears are shallow, and look a bit like a blister that has come off.  You take away the top few layers of skin leaving the lower, fresh layers.  As your calluses get deeper and deeper, the tears tend to produce some blood, and a good chunk of you left on the bar.  No matter which type of tear you have, they are not fun, and need to be properly cared for.

First things first, if you get a tear, once you have finished your workout, clean the tear out as best as you can.  Tears seem to get infected more easily than other wounds (maybe because of their location?).  Keeping them clean is paramount.  Once the tear is clean it will need to be properly dressed.  If you do a bit of googling, you will find many different ways to treat and dress a tear.  I have personally tried quite a few of these and what I have found to work best for dressing a callus tear is a product called “Lanolin Hydrous”.  Think of it like Neosprorin on steroids.  It squeezes out of its tube very very thick, and softens up a bit as you work it between your fingers. Spread a dab of this on the whole tear area and any hard callus skin left on your hand.  This will keep the callus from drying out and cracking (Trust me, you don’t want cracking!).  You will then want to cover it with a bandage.  I really like the Band-Aid “Tough Strips”  they have stronger adhesive which works better on your hands skin which flexes all day long.

You’ll want to leave the tear covered for a day or two so that it can begin to heal.  Once this begins to occur, I like to alternate between a few things.  I will rotate between having the tear covered, and uncovered, with and without lanolin.  I want the tear to air out a bit, but not dry up enough to crack.  So, I will put a dressing on it in the morning, and then take it off for part of the afternoon.  If this is not convenient for you, super gluing can also work pretty well.  Stay away from liquid bandage, the sting of it in a tear will send you through the roof!

Of course we still want you to come in and get a workout while you have your tear, so we have a few options for you while you are in the gym.  We have a selection of gloves (this is the ONLY time that we endorse the use of gloves in the gym) or we can wrap your hand with tape.  Grab some tape and talk to Beth or I about the best way to wrap for your specific injury.

If you have any further questions about how to take care of your tear, feel free to post up here, or email me: ryan@wccrossfit.com.

Watch the blog for an upcoming tutorial on how to avoid this all together.

-Ryan

<edit> Erica from the 6pm class has another ointment she says works better than my Lanolin, it is called Tamanu oil.  It is available at Pharmaca.  I have not used this product, so I cannot comment on how it works, but Erica swears that her rips heal faster with this stuff.  If you have used it, leave me a comment and let me know what you think!  Thanks Erica

This weekend, Jamie Cook (of 6am class fame) will be competing in the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.  Good luck Jamie, and know that the whole community at Wine Country CrossFit is behind you!

Jamie, as usual, killing it on the GHD

While Jamie is sweating, we will be too!  Don’t forget we are hosting a free community workout this Saturday at 10am.  This event is open to any age and ability levels.  Bring a friend to show them how to get in the best shape of their life!

-Ryan