Archive for May, 2011

By now, we’ve all heard that plastic bottle are bad for us – mainly because of the BPA. However, there are MANY more sources of BPA than just plastic bottles. Here are some tips from Freshthemovie.com to avoid the major sources of BPA:
Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a hormone-disrupting chemical that lurks in food can linings, plastic food and beverage containers, and a slate of other consumer products. It has been linked with serious effects on human health, from recurrent miscarriages in women and neurological changes in children to erectile dysfunction and hormonal changes in men. Chemical industry lobbying has kept regulators from banning the use of BPA, but there is good news. A 2010 study* found that BPA levels in five families dropped dramatically (by 60% on average) after just three days of not eating canned goods and food in plastic packaging. Here are several more steps you can take to reduce your exposure to BPA:

1. Avoid drinking out of plastic bottles. Use unlined stainless steel ones instead.
2. Avoid canned foods and those that are sold in plastic containers. Buy products in glass or cardboard “brick-packaging” for a BPA-free alternative. Choose dried beans instead of canned ones, and stick with fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. If you can’t avoid canned fruits, vegetables, or beans, rinse the contents well before serving.
3. Store leftovers in glass containers instead of plastic ones.
4. Never microwave food in plastic containers or while covered in plastic wrap. Use glass or ceramic containers instead.
5. Don’t take receipts or wash your hands after touching one. The thermal paper used by many retailers for receipts contains high concentrations of BPA.
6. Check recycling numbers on plastics. Types 3 and 7 are likely to contain BPA, so avoid these.
7. For Parents with Young Children: Unfortunately, many BPA alternatives are still being tested for safety and it is difficult to determine what products are truly better. For developing brains and bodies, cut to the chase and avoid plastics altogether.
   • If you feed your infant formula, choose the powdered version instead of the liquid kind.
   • Use glass or stainless steel containers for bottles and sippy cups.
   • Avoid plastic toys, especially items that will be put into mouths.

By now, you may know that the hamburger you’re eating can come from hundreds of different cows – even cows from different continents (And if you didn’t know this . . . well . . . surprise!!). However, the same is now true for steaks and other meats. It may not be from hundreds of different cows, but you’re eating the leftover scraps and paying a high end price. And your steak may be glued together with pig or lamb!! The meat is stuck together with an enzyme that is known as “Meat Glue”. As the video states, “It’s Dangerous S***”.

The video below mentions that the extra bacteria is a problem which could be the case if ordering your meat rare to medium rare. But for me, the bottom line is that we have no idea where our food comes from anymore. And many people seem to be okay with this!! To better understand this, please watch the movie Food, Inc. We blindly purchase food off the shelves at our local grocery store and don’t even give a second thought to the quality of the product or how our food was raised – be it meat or produce. If it’s low quality and improperly raised, how do you think you’re going to feel after eating it for 20 years? Why do we think we have such a high incidence of cancer and heart disease. Surprise, surprise.

If you want to know where your food comes from, buy from a Farmer’s Market. Or buy from online realtors you can trust. For my meats, I buy exclusively from U.S. Wellness Meats and Broken Arrow Ranch for variety. These two online resources sell the best meats you’ve ever had!! Especially the fresh, never frozen from U.S. Wellness Meats. For my dairy, I buy raw. You can find a store that sells raw at Real Milk or purchase online from Organic Pastures.

Do your research folks – your health is at stake. At the very least, ask me. If you need help, I’ll find quality products for you to purchase. We need to start spending our money on quality products. We vote with our dollars!!

There’s a common saying – Everything Happens For A Reason. I used to believe that until this morning. As I showered, I began to think about recent events. So many things are popping up. Which ones do I pursue? Which do I let fall by the wayside? If everything happens for a reason, doesn’t that really mean I need to look at each and every opportunity? Who’s got the time for that?

So I focused in on a recent opportunity that I knew I needed to pursue and I compared it to a similar event that I knew I didn’t really need to pursue. It dawned on me that both events happened because I MADE them happen. I was telling the universe (God, Buddha, whatever your belief) what I wanted and both opportunities arose. These events didn’t just happen; it wasn’t the universe pushing me in a certain direction or exposing me to these events for a reason. It was ME creating these events from my thoughts.

The major difference is specificity. I wasn’t specific with my thoughts so both events happened. Too many of us have no clue what we want. So how are we supposed to have any direction?! Even if you do know what you want – how specific are you? If you’re not very specific (currently like me), you’ll be bombarded with tons of opportunities and you’ll get nowhere trying to figure out which ones to pursue. Time for me to get specific and clear about EXACTLY what I want. I’ll let you know how it goes.

If you’re thinking that this sounds a lot like The Secret, you’re right. If you think all of that hoodad nonsense is just that, Nonsense – well, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are right” -Henry Ford.

We at CrossFit LOVE our “Death By” workouts. Over a week ago, we just combined a Death by Power Cleans with Death by 10 meters. Ouch. There is one “Death By” that is literally killing us, though.

Death by Sugar.

Death by Sugar is not an overstatement. In order to fully appreciate how sugar is literally killing us, please read this article from Dr. Mercola. And if you have an extra 90 minutes (yeah, yeah, I know – but watch it anyway), be sure to watch this video. It has been posted everywhere, but it’s that important to watch – so I’m posting it here too. It has over 1.1 million views for a reason: