John Gottshall

this is a gest

another test

A couple of years ago I got a blackberry, I figured that having email on my phone would make it a little easier with my business communications as most of it is through email.

I gotta say that it was pretty convenient.  I also fell in love with the calendar that it had.  I had a ton of reminders that I would set to recur every day.  Reminders like praying for my family, and reminding me to do certain things with my kids.

It wasn’t long before I found that the internet could be quite distracting though but I kept it.

Of course at that time everyone was raving about the iphone.  You have no idea how many times I heard, “I can’t live without it, and “it’s so awesome”.

So I determined that when the new Iphone came out last fall that I would jump on the Iphone bandwagon.

I’ve got to say that I was pretty disappointed with the calendar and email options.  Yes I tried plenty of apps and they were okay.

The only really good thing about it was that I had the Bible on it so I could read it any time I wanted.

No doubt the internet clarity was off the charts, that that Siri thing is just all jacked up.

But I kept finding that there were things that I wished it could do for my business that it didn’t.

Then one day I took Abby out on a date and we were walking around Town Center and I saw another guy there with his daughter who was probably about 8 years old.

She was playing on the sidewalk while he was sitting on a bench, with his smartphone in hand.  As she was talking to him and asking him questions he was just responding with answers like, “yea sure honey”, and “that’s nice sweetie”.  He had no clue what she was talking about because he was so fixed on his phone.

I thought it was sad, and then I immediately realized that I was heading in that same direction and there already in some ways.

God have mercy on me for the times where my beautiful children were trying to engage with me and I was so enthralled with my phone that I gave them those same answers.

I am a firm believer that I am the best example that my children have right now of what the Father is like.

I want them to know that Abba is singing over them with joy and gladness and loves to hear every when they call out to him.  The children of this generation are going to grow up thinking that God is to busy for their precious little hearts.

Not my children though.  The weather, facebook and any business information can wait.

I am determined to show them a correct representation of the character of God.

So I sold that stupid iphone and the blackberry and went back to a basic phone.

One of the best choices I made for in all of 2011.

Yesterday was a rest day for me so back at it today.  The Helen WOD is a favorite of mine but I’ve been doing quite a few pull-ups lately and haven’t done many handstand push-ups.  So I decided to sub HSPU’s for the pull-ups.

3 Rounds for time of:

Run 400m
55# Kettlebell swings X 21
HSPU’s X 12

16:12 – yikes, last time I did Helen with the pull-ups I think it took me just under 9 minutes.

Hopefully it will come back better than ever within a few months.

Squat – 5X5: 185, 205, 205, 225, 245 (limit rest time to 2 min. between sets)

Strict Pull-ups – 5XMax: 11, 9, 7, 7, 7

Bench Press – 5X5: 165, 175, 185, 185, 186 (limit rest time to 2 min. between sets)

I was really hoping to do overhead press (as this is a far superior exercise compared to bench) but both racks were being used at the gym.

With a continuously running clock do 1 pull-up the first minute, then 2 pull-ups the second minute.  Continue adding 1 pull-up each minute until you cannot keep up.

Completed 12 minutes + 7 pullups.

It should be noted that kipping pull-ups were used as is rx’d on all crossfit workouts that involve pull-ups unless otherwise noted by crossfit.

If you are unfamiliar with kipping pull-ups here is an excellent instruction video with Jason Khalipa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cTAJnIGm6c

A few months ago Lisa told me that she was had started feeling more tired than normal for the past several days and asked if I had any input.

It couldn’t be blamed on junk food because she doesn’t eat much of it so I started wondering what could be going on.  Every once in a while I have an idea that turns out to be right (maybe once or twice a year) lol.

So I suggested that maybe she wasn’t getting enough fat in her diet.  I suggested that she start eating more bacon (yummy) and fatty meets.
I know, I know the all too common objection, “that won’t give her more energy, that will just cause her to gain weight”.  Well fast forward about a week and guess what, she didn’t gain any weight but she did feel much better.

How is this possible?

Saturated fat (fats from meets and other foods like eggs) are the primary source of energy that the body uses and needs.

Guess what, fat doesn’t make you fat, insulin makes you fat.

Yea I know that flies right in the face of conventional wisdom, the part about fat I mean, many people haven’t heard the factual argument about insulin making us fat so here it is very simply:

All carbohydrates even whole grain breads and fruit eventually end up as sugar and cause your insulin levels to rise.  When your insulin levels rise glycogen is released into your bloodstream.  Now unless you just some type of exercise or manual work chances are that your muscles only need a limited amount of glycogen.  Once your muscles are full of glycogen they don’t allow any more glycogen in.

Since the muscles don’t need anymore glycogen it is pushed into your fat cells.  So your fat cells end up filling with sugars which makes you fat.

If you can talk an overweight person into being honest with you every one of them will tell you that their diet is mostly comprised of lots of carbohydrates (and probably plenty of fats as well) and not much protein.

I’ll go even further and say that it wouldn’t be very hard to find someone who eats a high carb/low fat diet and low protein who is also struggling to lose weight, especially if they are over 30.

I talked to a guy at my work the other day (a fellow firefighter) who is overweight.  At the fire station, most people chip in $$ for lunch and dinner then someone goes to the grocery store and buys food to cook for the rest of the shift.  We call it the “meal plan”.  I don’t participate in the meal plan because I don’t have the willpower, lol, to not eat the junk and only eat the healthy stuff.

Anyway so back to my co-worker, he was harping on me because I’m not in the meal plan yet I’m always eating bacon (yummy) and other foods high in fat.  He said, “why don’t you get in the meal plan if you’re gonna eat that stuff”.  Fair question I said.

I told him that the high fat foods (and high protein) of the meal plan are good, it’s all the ice cream, and cakes, and other grains that are bad and it’s pointless for me to pay for that stuff if I don’t want to eat it.

What’s so ironic is that this guy is 5’8″ and weighs about 230. I’m not making fun of him in the least, absolutely not so I asked him why I’m not pushing 260 lbs if my eating style is so bad and he argued that it’s because I workout a so much.

Truth be known, my average workout time per weeks comes to a whopping 3 hours on average.  I’ve got news for him and you (maybe), I know people who workout more than double the time that I workout and they are unable to maintain a healthy weight.  Guess what, they eat a high carb diet.  Some of them eat high fat and some eat low fat.  Obviously the amount of fat isn’t what’s making them fat.

Now to finish this post let me just make it clear that I’m eternally grateful that how much we weigh or how we look has absolutely nothing to do with the way God feels about me or my eternal security.

Hell, I’d rather be in eternity right now, but well I’m waiting for that wondrous day I’d rather feel the best I can with the most amount of energy possible.

Have a wonderful day

John

4 Rounds AFAP:

95# Overhead Squats X 12
Burpees X 12

11:29

The real workout called for 5 rounds with 21 burpees each round.

Like I said the other day, it’s gonna take me some time to get back into Crossfit shape.

Strength, not big muscles but true strength is obviously an important part of true fitness so I usually try to get 1 or 2 strength only workouts done in a week.  Today was an oldie but a goodie.

Squat 5X5: 185, 205, 225, 245, 265
Deadlift 2X5: 225, 275
Bench Press 5X5: 155, 185, 185, 185, 185

For the squats and bench I did 5 sets of 5 reps of the stated weight, and for the deadlift only 2 sets of 5 reps.

I’ve lost a considerable amount of strength over the past few months from taking off quite a bit of time and doing more bodyweight stuff but it shouldn’t take long to get back.

Two important aspects of all of these exercises are to keep a very tight core through the entire movement and to squeeze the bar through the entire movement.

I’ve decided to start posting my workouts here on my blog.  Not really so people can see them but more of a journal for myself to refer back to over time.

I’m a big believer in Crossfit and their philosophies.  I totally detest the typical gym routine with a bunch of machines filled with people totally focused on how big they can grow their chest and chisel their abs.  It’s not about how you look it’s about real fitness people and how you feel – more on this later.

Today I kind of made up a workout using what I’ve learned from Crossfit over the years.  Here it is:

8 Rounds AFAP (as fast as possible) of the following:

Run 80 meters
8 Kettlebell swings (50# kettlebell)
8 Squats
8 Pushups

My total time was 10:35 – yikes.

I’m clearly out of Crossfit shape as there was a time several months ago where I would have done this in under 8 minutes.

Shouldn’t take me to long to get back there though

I took Drew to IHOP yesterday in this getup and he got so many “ahs” that I figured it would be an injustice not to post this.

Thanks to my sister for the cape and gun that she sent him for his birthday and for the cowboy boots that belong to one of her boys.

The little dude loves his new (and by the way very first) gun.  It lights up all over the place when you pull the little trigger.

I think it’s awesome!

He’ll be totin’ his first airsoft rifle before we know it.

We got him one of those old cap guns (for Christmas) that all us boys had years ago but realized when it came in the mail that the trigger is probably a little to stiff for him.

That’s why I was totally stoked when this came for his birthday.

Yes I am 100% supportive of my children playing with toy guns.

The sooner they start the better

Yea that’s right.

God created boys with an innate desire to hunt and kill (animals of course) and to protect and fight and I’m thrilled that our little Drew is soaking it up.

I think it’s a crying shame that so many parents frown on their kids playing with guns.

Boys who grow up never being allowed to rough house and play cowboys and Indians and rescue princesses all to often end up passive, not know how or why to stand up for what’s right.

Much more on this subject in posts to come.

Thank you Dad and Mom for letting me play with guns when I was a kid.

And yes I did let my kids fix their beady little eyes on my new Kahr CW9 9mm handgun, and even touch it.