LEGION FITNESS

September 30-November 25... Our first ever fitness challenge! 

This challenge will be designed to keep you accountable and help you see the results you want in the next 8 weeks, while doing what YOU enjoy doing.

We will start and end the challenge with complimentary InBody Scans at Affinity Whole Health- a non-invasive body composition analysis that provides a detailed breakdown of your weight in terms of muscle, fat, and water on an InBody Result Sheet, and all you have to do is step on a scale!

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EVERYONE BUYS IN-  We charge $20 to do the challenge. Why? Because people commit better when they have skin in the game.

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DECLARE YOUR INTENT- You can declare the big changes that you think you need to make. Everyone is different. What habit are you trying to break? What habit are you trying to form? Declare it. It might look like this: I am going to give up alcohol for 8 weeks, or maybe it's as simple as: I will eat vegetables at every meal. That counts.

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DECLARE YOUR REASONS- Why are you doing this? Losing weight isn’t necessarily a thing that we love as a goal, because it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, if not often, when we get stronger and healthier, we actually gain weight, and even size. But we want you to dig into yourself and know why you’re doing this. You’ve been feeling stuck? Foggy brained? Your immune system seems to be bumming? And yes, “I’m curious” is a 100% legitimate reason to do this. It’s why I do almost everything. 

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NO WEIGHING YOURSELF- The scale can be your enemy. We will only weigh ourselves using the InBody Scanner at the beginning and end of the 8 weeks so you can see the whole picture!

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KEEP SCORE- This is part of the challenge, sharing with the group, supporting others in the group, and being accountable. We have a 10 point scale. Winners get a prize.

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• 5 points for food. Food is all or nothing. You get 5 points for adhering to your plan perfectly. 0 points for food if you deviate at all. This enforces you are eating in a way that works for YOU and your schedule on the DAILY (yes, even weekends!). But hey, sometimes shit happens, if you fall off, get right back on board and get those points tomorrow! 

• 1 point for exercise. Every day. It doesn’t have to be intense, though we’d encourage you to really hit it hard at least 2-3 days a week. But every day, something. A CrossFit or Burn  class. Yoga. A long walk. Super intense and active sex. Whatever, get your heart rate up, use and stretch your muscles.

• 1 point for hydration. 1/2 in ounces of your bodyweight in water every day. Have trouble drinking water? Buy a water bottle to keep with you! Maybe use some electrolyte enhancers to make your water taste yummy! Do whatever works for you.

• 1 point for mobility. 10 minutes a day of rolling, stretching. It matters. We are always chasing a balance of strength and mobility. If you have too much of one, not balanced out by the other, you’re at greater risk for injury.

• 1 point for sleep. Yup. Sleep is super important for both your brain and your body. It’s when your body releases growth hormone to heal (and build) your muscles. It’s when your brain sorts things out. 7 hours a night, minimum. We know this is hard for some people, especially those with kids, but by trying to prioritize it, we’ve seen people make big changes.

• 1 point for reporting to the group. This is actually super important, because this is where community and accountability work their magic. We ask people to fill out their score in Wodify Rise AND write a post about what they ate, did and how they felt. This is where the magic happens.

 

At the end of the month, we tally up the points in Wodify Rise, and announce the winners.

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Easy Peasy.

 

But first, why?

It’s simple. Nutrition is the single most important thing you can do for your body. It is, literally, the fuel that your body needs to run. If your body were a car, food is your gas. Without gas, or with bad gas (and no oil, and no coolant and….) your car will break down. So will your body. This isn’t about shame and control, it’s just logic. Put the fuel that your body needs into your body and it will work better. Don’t put harmful things in the tank (at least not often) and it will work better.

 

I always tell people that you can come to the gym every day if you want, but if you’re not paying attention to nutrition, you’re rowing a boat with one oar.

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But why do it as an 8 week challenge? Isn’t that just a “diet?”

Maybe. But for many people, it’s less claustrophobic and overwhelming to bite off a piece. With these next 8 weeks, there’s an end in sight, but it’s also enough time to learn that you can, in fact, control what you eat and drink. And for us, that’s actually the more important part. We want people to learn that you are in charge of what you put in your body, not your mother, not some magazine or celebrity web site, not some desperate sense that you can’t survive this one event without drinking. You can. Just like showing up in the gym forms a habit, showing yourself that you can make decisions around your food can build habits. It’s also enough time for your body to begin to adjust to life with different fuel. Not only might you start to feel better, but you might be able to feel the difference when you deviate again. (Note, I try not to use words like “cheat” and “bad” when I talk about food. There’s what we typically do, and there’s deviation from that. We don’t need more shame around food, we just need to acknowledge patterns. We need to acknowledge cause and effect.) 

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It is this kind of learning about your own body that we hope to encourage. Because there is no single nutritional plan that is perfect for everybody. Just like we aim to help you learn how your body works in the gym, we hope to empower you to make decisions about your own food with our challenges.

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One more random thought...

Your relationship with your body is  not a one-night stand or a summer fling. You are literally in that thing for your entire life. Just like any relationship, it involves learning to listen and to compromise and to pay attention to how things feel. Be patient with yourself as you learn your body’s language, and be patient with it while it learns how to interpret the things you do to it.