We chat about the upcoming 2018 CrossFit Open and how we use that as an annual goal to test our fitness and benchmark ourselves against our peers around the world. Am I better, worse or about the same as previous years? We also touch on a touchy subject - excuses and putting yourself at the bottom of the pile of your life's priorities. We then wrap up with a quick chat about nutrition - eating protein at every meal and... you knew we were going to say it.... eat your veggies! Whilst broccoli is great, if thats the sum total of your regular vegetable consumption then it's time to expand your horizons. If you don't yet eat green things then there is also a rap over the knuckles in this episode for you. Variety is the name of the game. Eat the rainbow and the same applies to your protein selections too.

It is the time of year for abundance. The supermarkets know full well that you are feeling festive, generous, joyous. They also know this means you will eat pretty well anything they put in front of you. Although their advertising indicates they care about you and your family at Christmas, in reality the only thing they care about are their profits. Thus, taking actual care of your waistline (and your health) is up to you. We discuss this prolonged period of celebration and abundance and how to be a bit cynical at this time of year in order to come out the other side relatively unscathed. We also discuss time off and school holidays and how to live like a fit person when the whole world has gone mad around you.

The 3rd annual FFF Challenge was held on Saturday November 18. Whilst we were blessed with cooler temperatures compared to 2017, the forecast of 0-5mm of rain proved to be wildly inaccurate with a deluge setting in for much of the day. Thankfully WOD 1, which was the only outdoor event managed to scrape through without anyone getting a wet bum! In this episode Greg and Belinda debrief on the event, discuss what it means to compete in an "exercise competition" as well as share recovery strategies so you can bounce back after such an effort quickly. If you can stick it through to the end you'll also hear a few short snippets from some of the events participants as Belinda surprised them with a microphone stuck in their face as soon as they had finished competing. The FFF Challenge is a celebration of Fun, Fitness and Family and continues to get bigger and better each year. It is an opportunity for our members to test their fitness in the supportive environment of their own fitness family. Participation is more important than placing and fun and laughter predominate (above a bit of grunting and cursing from time to time!).

In addition to the usual weekly wrap up of programming (and a sinister warning about the upcoming evil sister to the burpee) we discuss the concept of overreaching versus overtraining. How do we train intelligently to play the long game of improved fitness instead of pandering to our ego that just wants to be the best at everything right now? CrossFit training is a potent mix and one of the charters of our coaches at CrossFit Flourish is to empower our members to listen to their bodies and know when its time to rein it back a little, scale intelligently and be in it for the long haul. We also discuss the 3 pillars of nutrition that one of the worlds greatest CrossFit coaches Ben Bergeron frequently refers to and these pillars apply equally to the most gifted CrossFit Games athlete in the world as they do to the everyday mums and dads in the southern Brisbane 'burbs. Nutrition is simple. Really simple. Don't buy into the hype from the latest fitness celeb, don't be suckered into the food like substances produced in chemical labs. Eat Real Food. Don't Eat too Much. Eat Mostly Plants. Its good solid advice and we discuss why and how you might begin to apply this to your own life. Enjoy! :)

This week we welcome Jo Rogers to the show. Jo is well known in the Flourish community as a Trainer, crossfitter and competitor. However, CrossFit is a more recent addition to her repertoire. Prior to her crossing over to the dark side, Jo was and still is very well known in the bodybuilding world. During a competitive career spanning a decade she amassed 7 Ms Australia and NABBA Ms World runner up titles. She is still a national level bodybuilding judge, and she runs a business catering to the competition preparation needs of the bodybuilding industry (including making the most exquisite sparkly bikinis on earth!).

With all that experience and success, one would think that the pursuit of fitness would come easily for Jo. So how on earth did she end up in a CrossFit box in Jimboomba if she already knew it all and had reached such great heights of success? As we chat through Jo's story of dancing, acrobatics, sports aerobics and being a single mum, it turns out that Jo's just a regular human like the rest of us and still needs someone to kick her in the pants every now and then. We also discuss the potential pitfalls for newcomers looking to improve their fitness and thinking that jumping on the bodybuilding/physique bandwagon is the only way to go. Tread your own path and do what you enjoy, but be careful of where you source your inspiration because all of what you see may not be real.

It's been a high skill week of bar muscle ups, handstand walking, l-sit rope climbs, overhead squats and more so we chew Greg's ear about why he puts this hard stuff in. We also dive into a deeper discussion about breathing mechanics including holding the breath versus not holding the breath during lifts and bracing sequence. We then discuss the latest nutrition coaching habit of "Eat Slowly"... sounds simple until you try to do it and it could just be one of the reasons why even though you "eat well", you still aren't getting you the results you desire when it comes to body composition.

This week we welcome our first guest to the show! Paige is one of our members and we chat with her about her CrossFit journey thus far which began as a worn-out and stressed out business owner and mum 12 months ago, to her success as part of the Qld Team at the Masters League "State of Origin" held at the Gold Coast last weekend. Paige's journey is one many can relate to (although her involvement in ice-skating is possibly quite unique) and she has a refreshing perspective on fitness, struggling with injury and just showing up. We also briefly recap on the week we've just had including tackling the iconic Filthy Fifty which stirred up quite a bit of emotion in people for all kinds of reasons as well as mention a couple of points of performance we were addressing during the press series earlier in the week.

In this episode we talk about the double edge sword of growth mind-set vs perfection. Have you seen a sumo deadlift high-pull lately? And how do you avoid the hot box of yellow food washed down with a can Mother at the servo at 5am?

Welcome to our first episode of what we hope will become a weekly fixture of box news and information. In this episode Belinda & Greg discuss the week we've just had, including a wrap up of the CrossFit Teams series, what the past week of workouts were intended to develop, and what next weeks programming looks like. We also talk injuries and how best to manage these to prevent "falling off the wagon" and welcome the newest crew to Nourish to Flourish. We look forward to your feedback as we build this out to become a useful resource for our members and the general Jimboomba fitness community.