Caffeine, Twitter & Community

My recent guest post over at the CrossFit Elevate blog (a.k.a. the "Hustle Press") is about using social media and adult beverages to make your gym a little more like Cheers.

The next logical step: Building a coffee joint inside your CrossFit gym.

After These Messages, We'll Be Right Back

I'm off to the 2011 CrossFit Games! I plan to keep busy this weekend, and may not have a chance to blog. But I'll be on Twitter, so you can follow me as I tweet out non sequiturs and unnecessary commentary about the Games. As for you Philistines who refuse to join the rest of us in the Twitterverse, you can keep up with my most recent tweets in this handy-dandy box:


But frankly, you shouldn't be doing anything this weekend other than watching the Games, which will run from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. You can catch all the action via live video streaming on the CrossFit Games site, or watch the "Live Premier Coverage" streaming online at ESPN3.com.

And of course, if you're at the Home Depot Center this weekend and spot a panicky-looking Asian guy in a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Nom Nom Paleo," "CrossFit Palo Alto" or "SICFIT," please be a pal and kindly direct him to the nearest restroom. Thanks in advance.

Friday's Workout: Balls to the Wall

An exchange on Twitter yesterday:

@CFPaloAlto: Pending birth announcement for 5/20. It’s a girl. Glad @fitbomb is feeling better. #Crossfit

@PROGENEX: @CFPaloAlto Fun! What will we name her? Fran, Angie, Diane? Maybe Helen? Our recommendation: #TwinGirls #WOD

@fitbomb: @PROGENEX @CFPaloAlto – I’m cool with it as long as you’re not naming the baby Jackie, Karen, Eva, Kelly or Mary. #legsstillfried

Yes, I would have been okay with doing two WODs -- provided I didn't have to murder my legs again.

But of course, we got Kelly today. Figures.

Details after the jump...

Wednesday's Workout: Rope-a-Dope

I don't know why I can't bring myself to hit the sheets. Last night, after putting the kids to bed and hanging out with M as she practiced her deadlifts in the garage, I spent a couple of hours fumbling around with Illustrator and Photoshop. Trial-and-error ain't the most time-efficient way to cobble together T-shirt designs for my enterprising wife's website -- but if all goes well, they'll look something like this and this.

Finally, at 11 p.m., my phone buzzed with a Twitter message from Tim: "Go to bed. Got a good one tomorrow."

Don't we always?

The 5 a.m. workout, after the jump.

Tweet Tweet

Like just about everyone else at our tech-immersed box, I've become a big fan of Twitter -- though I’d be the first to admit that I should have jumped on the bandwagon sooner. If nothing else, Twitter serves as an incredible news reader. By following the folks who share links to topics of interest to me -- including CrossFit, Paleo nutrition, minimalist footwear, etc. -- I end up with a nicely-curated selection of reading materials, videos and photos. I can also follow specific lists (say, of CrossFit Palo Alto members) or take advantage of Twitter feed aggregators like CrossTwits.

Best of all: With a 140-character limit per tweet, people on Twitter are forced to GET TO THE POINT ALREADY.

Here are just a few random items that popped up on my Twitter feed today:

• What's the connection between wheat and schizophrenia?
• Fatigued from exercising? It's all in your head.
• Steve Nash and Grant Hill appear to be eating Paleo.
• The best thing you can do with McDonald’s French fries? Sculpt a big-ass skull.
• Some guy’s body literally fused into his chair after staying seated for two years.
• Perez Hilton’s take on the Paleo diet is boring and wrong.
• Failure can be a good thing.
• I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson's workout is ridonkulous (and hazardous to your health).
• Holy crap -- two brothers (both U.S. Marines) busted out over 15 rounds (!) of Games Open WOD 11.2!
• The advice to “drink 8 glasses of water a day” has no scientific basis, so give your bladder a break.
• And while we're on that topic, I have a feeling my pee is going to smell funny for the next month.

If you're not already on Twitter, get on it. (And while you’re at it, follow me, dammit.)

Look Who's on Twitter!

It's my wife!

Follow her on Twitter for Paleo-centric updates, food porn, recipes and more.

(And don't forget to follow me, too, dammit.)

Swamped

Sorry about the lack of posts today. (Life happens.) Be back shortly.

In the meantime, visit M's blog, check out my new CrossFit landing page (which is still a work in progress, by the way) and catch me on Twitter. Or go do something really productive and game-changing, like uploading a picture of Voltron in place of your Facebook profile photo, thereby eradicating child abuse once and for all.

Where'd Everything Go?

Dunno if you've noticed, but I've been doing a bit of housekeeping around here. And just like how my kids can't seem to find their toys after I've put 'em away, you may be left wondering what happened to my blogroll, progress photos, and the links to my old daily workouts.

Everything's still here. The navigation menu above is where you can find everything that used to be in the sidebar to the right. I've added some extra stuff, too -- links to new blogs and other sites, a new shop, and some new topic summaries.

Also, I (finally) launched a Twitter feed, so hit the big blue button on the sidebar -- or click here -- to follow my sweetly tweeting ass. Let's see if I can keep my ramblings to 140 characters or less.

Tweet Your Goals

I've mentioned this before, but a great way to keep yourself accountable to your goals is to tell everyone about them. That's the reason I started this blog (waaay back in August '09); fear of public humiliation was (is) a huge motivating source, as well as the encouragement and support that I've received online. But blogging can take a lot of time and effort. For those of you who have fitness or weight loss goals but little time to devote to maintaining a full-blown blog, give Twitter a shot. Tweeting about his weight loss goals worked for Drew Magary of Deadspin, and now Brian Stelter of the New York Times is doing it with a lot of success, having lost almost 75 pounds in six months on a "Twitter Diet":

I started this Twitter feed at 270 pounds. I think I maxed out between 275 and 280. But now I’m at 220. I’d like to be under 200. -- 8:47 a.m., June 28.

Finally, I felt comfortable publishing my starting weight. “I’m embarrassed by it,” I added that day. “But now I feel comfortable, because I know I’m never going back.”

Today, I’m under the 200-pound mark, and by Sept. 3 I’ll have lost 75 pounds. I’m already thinking ahead to the fall, when I’ll have to learn how to maintain my new size. I have ordered a specially made scale that posts its results onto Twitter every week. It will confess -- or brag -- for me automatically.

In case you're interested, I think this is the scale he's talking about.

(Source: NYT, Engadget)