Let The Games Begin!
Monday, May 28, 2012 Well hello boys and girls, here it is! You've made it to home base for Crossfit Hyperformance's semi-annual Clean Your Plate Whole 30 challenge, June edition! Want to play along? There's a few things you'll need to know to get started.
First off, if you have not signed up yet at the gym, you should do so by Wednesday, May 30th at the latest. There's a sign up form by the office door with space for your name, email, and how you'll be paying (cash, check, or card). The buy-in is $35 which will go toward the prize pool, and just a little FYI, the more participants we have, the better the prizes (hint hint…that means you should convince your slacker friends to jump in on the fun too!).
If you've never experimented with Paleo before and are unsure of what a Whole 30 challenge is, here's the short version. For the entire month of June (yes, that's ALL 30 days), we will be eliminating foods from our diets that make us sick and replacing them with healthy and nutrient dense alternatives, or real food if you will. This means we will not consume any grains, sugar, dairy, legumes, or processed foods, choosing instead high quality meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats. There's certainly more to it than that, so be sure to come to the Food as Fuel workshop on Wednesday with all of your Whole 30 questions.
So here's how the challenge itself will run. Everyone will be divided up into teams and starting June 1st, you'll be competing for points. There are a total of 150 points possible per person, 50 of which are bonus points that can mostly be acquired prior to the challenge. Here's the point breakdown so you'll know what to expect:
Weekly Points (25 x 4 = 100 total)
* 1 point for every day you stay 100% Whole 30 (7)
* 1 point for every day you do the weekly challenge (7)
* Stay clean all week AND attend the max number of CF classes your membership allows (unlimited should attend at least 3) *You MUST do both to receive these points! (7)
* 4 points for each teammate if the whole team makes it through the week clean (4)
Bonus Points
* Come to the Food as Fuel meeting
* Drop off "bad" food in the box (points are determined by the number of items)
* Submit a story for Story Wars
* Come to the Paleo Potluck
* Set a performance based goal
* Take before and after pictures
* Do the benchmark WOD before and after the challenge
* Eat clean the last two days of the challenge!
* Make at least one comment on the discussion page per week
And now we're at the final piece of the puzzle. Where do I log my points? See the link at the top right that says "Challenge login?" Good. All you have to do is click the link, create a user name and password, and you'll be able to fill out a form. It's as simple as selecting your team and checking off what you accomplished for that day. Make sure you keep up with logging in each day, though. You'll only have until noon of the following day to submit your results. After that, the next day's form will be up. Here's a sample of what you will be filling out.
In the traditional spirit of Crossfit, having the support of your teammates will without a doubt help you get through the biggest hurdles that Whole 30 is likely to bring. The first week or so can be rough, but you will be holding yourself accountable to you and also to them, which is why each of you will get a daily report of your team's progress through the month complete with individual and team totals. It makes it so much easier to reassess and decide that no, that slice of Vinnie's pizza is NOT actually worth it in the long run when you know your teammates will see it! By the way, you can probably see that the dropdown menu only lists teams as One, Two, Three, etc...Get creative with it and start coming up with your own kickass team name!
That about covers it for the rules, any other details will be announced as they come up. I hope you're all as excited as I am to look, feel, and perform better than ever (thanks for the verbage Robb Wolf!). Let's DO this!