CrossFit Kells Blogpost: The CFK Holiday Challenge
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Alright Alright, animals…
Summer is over. Many burgers and tips were crushed on the beach, we all did our part to keep Scoops/FarFar’s/Ziggy’s in business, and Coach Galla set the Plymouth County record for Tito’s consumption over the span of three consecutive calendar months (hey…it’s gluten-free!). And now we are staring-down the collective barrels of Halloween and the Holidays.
You asked for it. You’re ready for it. It’s time for another challenge…
From Monday, October 5th through Friday November 13th, we will be participating in the “CFK First Annual Memorial Lurong KillCliff Rogue Sealfit Spartan Challenge Sponsored by CrossFit”, referred to heretofore as “The CFK Holiday Challenge”.
This Challenge is a little more dynamic than any of our challenges to date, so let’s take a look at what we will be focusing on…
1. Sugar
Our old friend sugar! As many of you recall from the Sugar-Free-Junk-Trunk Challenge”, consuming too much sugar can be extremely detrimental to your diet and performance.
To refresh your memories, or to dig a little deeper for the first time for some of you, take a look at these two posts on the topic:
http://www.crossfitkells.com/blog-archive/2015/9/13/kells-blogpost-the-real-american-sniper
http://www.crossfitkells.com/blog-archive/2015/9/13/kells-blogpost-sugar-free-junk-trunk
As we did before, we will cut sugar out of our diets for the duration this challenge.
Daily scoring potential 12 POINTS: A suggested general outline is to eat six times per day; 3 meals, 3 snacks. We will use this guideline as the basis for our scoring. Alternatively you can simply look at blocks of time throughout the day (mornings 6-9, 9-12; afternoon 12-3, 3-6; evenings 6-9, 9-12). For each meal/time block, if you refrain from eating sugar, you get 2 points. If not, you get zero
IMPORTANT NOTE! Some of you are tracking your macronutrients for your food intake. If that is the case, do not stop this practice. Instead of the scoring system above, you will simply earn 12 points every day that you come within 5g of EACH of your macro goals (4 points each). So if you come within 5g of fat, carbs and protein (each), you get 12 points. If you, for example, hit your protein but miss fat and carbs, you get 4 points. Since tracking macros is a completely different approach than paleo, sugar or no sugar does not come into play here. Just focus on hitting your macronutrient goals.
Booze allowance per day: 1 glass of wine (6oz) or 1 oz of booze. Beer is not allowed (that sound you just heard was VanHaur throwing a Bud Light keg through his window)
Protein shake: you may have one protein shake per day, preferably post-workout.
2. Sleep
Another huge part of fitness that we push aside way too often is sleep. We each need to be getting between 7-9 hours per night on a consistent basis, which the vast majority of us are not doing.
We put out a blog on this topic as well, so take a look again (or for the first time) here:
http://www.crossfitkells.com/blog-archive/2015/7/30/vkj7wndnmbieuojc47eivprrji45q8
Daily scoring potential 12 POINTS:
a. 7-8 hours = 4 points
b. 8-9 hours = 8 points
c. 9+ hours = 12 points
The clock starts when you are in bed, lights off, no TV/phone/internet or any other electronics. Naps DO NOT count. While naps are pretty much the second best invention in history (Chipotle), we are striving for continuous, uninterrupted sleep. If you nap, awesome! But for scoring purposes here they do not count toward your total sleep.
3. Water
Yet ANOTHER thing most of us skimp on. Almost every one of us should be drinking more water, so this will also be included in this challenge.
Scoring potential 12 POINTS
1. Drink over 75% of your total body weight (oz): 6 Points
2. Drink over 100% of your total body weight (oz): 12 Points
Weigh yourself on day one of the challenge and use this weight for the entire 6 weeks to gauge your water intake. For example, if you weigh 100lbs, you will get 6 points if you drink between 75-99oz of water on a given day, or 12 points if you drink 100+oz.
SO…on a daily basis, you will each have the opportunity to score up to 36 total points (12 for no sugar, 12 for sleep, 12 for water).
There are two other ways to get points in this challenge:
Workouts – we will have 3 benchmark workouts that we will do at the beginning of this challenge. We will then re-test these workouts at the end of the challenge. If you beat your first score, you will get an additional 50 points per workout. NO SANDBAGGING! I’m looking at you, Sandbaggers….
Goals – most of you put a goal on the goal board over the last couple of months. If you achieve that goal by Friday, November 13th, you will earn an additional 200 points.
…and yes, Keith and a few others will have to post another goal.
For those of you who have not posted a goal on the board, you will have the opportunity to post one before the challenge starts. This needs to be a stretch goal for something that you can not currently accomplish. If you previously posted a goal and already achieved it, post another one. These goals need to be clear and specific (measurable) to count. Review with one of your coaches if you have questions.
And finally, we are going to put a bow on this with a little bit of CASH! There will be a $25 entry fee for those participating in the challenge. A little bit of money on the line will give us all a little more accountability…
Every dime will go back to the winners. Here’s how it will look:
40% of the total pot will go to the overall winner
20% of the total pot will go to 2nd place overall
10% of the total pot will go to 3rd place overall
10% of the total pot will go to the points winner for sugar
10% of the total pot will go to the points winner for water
10% of the total pot will go to the points winner for sleep
Please make a $25 check out to CrossFit Kells if you are going to participate (no cash please); all checks must be collected BEFORE the challenge starts on Monday October 5th.
We will keep track of the scoring at the gym, and everyone is responsible for their own score reporting. We might even get a Google Drive document in place if that will be easier for some folks (let me know your thoughts).
There you have it, kids. By the time Turkey Day rolls around, you will all be well rested, well hydrated, well nourished, chiseled killing machines…good luck!