Um, hi. Remember me?

Hello, Internet people!

I’ve been absent (not because I love you any less), busy, and tired. Tired like beyond tired tired. So tired that using any adjective other than tired makes me… tired. Why, you ask? Why so… fatigued?

Well. It turns out that as kids get older, they get more mobile. Who knew?? With increased mobility comes increased germ exposure and immune system building yadda yadda. So the past months have looked something like: fine fine SICK fine SICK SICK fine SICK SICK SICK fine. For those of you keeping track, that’s more sicks than fines. All thanks to my little germ-ridden bundle of joy.

(For the record, she is a joy through and through. 18 months old and she does burpees. And can support her bodyweight hanging from a bar. And she does barbell snatches with a toy rolling pin. Squee!)

On to the “busy” half of “busy and tired”: Why so busy?

Well. It turns out that as gyms get older, they get more mobile. More clients means more work! Can’t we just fail quietly and then take a nap? Gah. But noooo, (and now it’s bragging time), instead of napping we published a video that got picked up by places like Mark’s Daily Apple and MovNat.com, generating over ten thousand views.

We’re also in the process of renewing our natural movement selves. Greg just returned from the MovNat Expansion Course in West Virginia with Erwan LeCorre. We’re building new equipment all the time (hello, climbing wall! Hello, battling ropes!). Erwan himself will be joining us in September to spread the love. We bought half a cow from BeaverVale Farms and the lucky ones who got shares will be picking up their bounty this week. We’re starting a brand new Eat REAL Challenge this Saturday. We now carry VitaCoco Coconut Water.

We’ve been busy. Life is good.

We Have a Winner!!

Ladies and Gentlemen… May I present the one, the only, the lovely winner of the StrengthBox/Death Track Dolls (go see them play next Saturday) Eat REAL Challenge: Janimal Downright Dirty Dawson!!

Jan improved her baseline workout time by over 12%, earning her the title of Total Asskicker of the World… and she is also the recipient of a month of free training at StrengthBox!

A while back I put the Dolls through a brief but intense workout, noted their times, and told them to give up all the foods they love (grains, sugar, dairy) and focus on REAL nutrition (meat, fish, eggs, veggies, nuts, seeds, fruit) in the name of athletic amazingness. For a whole month. I encountered some pushback, as you may imagine… but in the end, those who stuck it out saw some incredible improvements in strength and speed, not to mention hawtness. When we repeated the workout at the end of the challenge, I was damn impressed with my derby ladies. Intrigued? Check us out. Are you up for a challenge?

Eat REAL Challenge, Recess, and Chocolate Treats

Can it be true? An actual blog post?

Yeeesh. Sorry, kids, it’s been too long. I have a list of excellent excuses, but excuses are for party poopers. Let’s move on to the news from the last month or so, shall we?

1. StrengthBox and Recess! have merged and become one and the same… the inimitable Death Track Dolls are continuing to kick ass and take names, and recently mopped the floor with the Venus Fly Tramps (check out some fantastic bout footage here). I credit burpees, of course.

2. I made these:

Paleo. Peppermint. Patties. (I consider very very dark chocolate to be Paleo. So shoot me.) Yes, you read that right. I modified this recipe from Elana’s Pantry slightly (sub 2 tablespoons of honey for the 1/4 cup agave nectar, sub unsweetened or 90% Cocoa Camino baking chocolate for the 73% chocolate, more peppermint oil to taste, and for half the batch I added a bunch of finely shredded coconut and vanilla instead of peppermint to make a “Mounds” style treat).

3. The StrengthBox Eat REAL Challenge is wrapping up this Saturday! We’ll be repeating the baseline workout to see who’s moving faster and feeling stronger… which StrengthBoxer and which Doll will take home the ultimate prize (one month of FREE unlimited group training at StrengthBox)? Stay tuned for updates!

This month has been full, busy, and completely amazingballs (my new favorite word), and next month will be even better.