This weekend, I drove to York, Pennsylvania for the Cradle of Iron strongman competition at the Weightlifting Hall of Fame, housed at the York Barbell Company. This was my first serious competitive effort. I was to discover, once more, how much doing strongman is mental and how different a competition can be from training. The competition took me further out of my comfort zone than training had done.  This time it ‘counted’ and was in front of a crowd.  And I didn’t control the pace.  There was a lot less rest time between events.  I found the competition to be a struggle with my nerves. Sometimes, I won, and sometimes not so much. Considering the setbacks, I think I did very well. I was emotionally hard on myself, but I did end up with a second place trophy. Not so bad for a relative newbie. 

 

In the end, however it all went, I have been recharged. I am more motivated than ever to continue with strongman. Since Sunday, rather than collapse in exhaustion, I have been energized, even working out the next day. I feel strong.  

 

On Sunday, oddly enough, at first, I was not particularly nervous. I was just looking forward to the whole competition. The first thing I did was a kettlebell warm-up, and then I was quiet until introducing myself to the other four female competitors, a unique and strong group.  

 

Each of us was, like my nail polish color this week, Not Just a Pretty Face. While Mary had said that we had to pose for our group photo early, before her make-up was ruined, there was, in fact, going to be a lot more wear and tear on our faces than that. We were five fearless females who all gave a super-human effort and showed that we could be strongwomen. In other words, we killed it. 

 

The men lifted heavier weights than we did, but our struggle was the same as theirs. Perhaps unlike the men, we had something more to prove. It was up to only the five of us to make the point that strength is for everyone. To be strong is to be healthy, and that should be the goal of working out. Everyone at the competition could see our muscle tone and strength, but they also saw our healthy bodies that could absorb tremendous stress, that held up under the strain. 

 

 

Lori Harris 

 

Have you ever thought about how easy life would be if you didn’t have to COOK? Seriously, planning meals, grocery shopping, always trying to come up with new and creative menus to serve to your family? It can get exhausting day after day, week after week to eat clean, eat healthy, and figure out new meals to make….So just stop! Stop stressing over food. Dumb it down. Simplify. Make it easy. We are bombarded by new diet plans, hot new diet books every week, the latest miracle supplements and anti-aging berries. Seriously, when did eating healthy become so complicated? We’ve got the FDA telling us we need to eat whole grains, we’ve got the American Dairy Association telling us we need three servings of dairy daily to burn fat (that’s a lie by the way), we’ve got the folks in the Protein camp telling us we need massive amounts of animal protein daily in order to build muscle…NO WONDER we’re completely confused, totally lost, AND FATTER than ever. Amidst this sea of conflicting and ever changing sports nutrition information, Here’s one principle we know to be true and ALL sports nutritionists and registered dieticians agree on. Eating an abundance of raw fruits and vegetables is really, really good for you. So good for you, in fact, that eating  this way can reverse most lifestyle related diseases. Eating a diet abundant in RAW fruits and vegetables has even been proven to cure ca nce r. So, here’s the skinny on eating RAW from www.rawfoodlife.com:

 

“A Raw food diet is based on eating whole, live, nutritionally-dense organic uncooked and un-processed foods as a large percentage of your diet. When 75-100% of your total food consumption is raw food, you are a raw foodist. At that rate it is believed that your body’s own elimination system can eliminate all or most of the toxins in the cooked portion of your diet. When you eat more cooked food you are eating toxins faster than your body can get rid of them so they back up causing disease. Heating food above 118 degrees F. is believed to destroy valuable enzymes in food that can assist in digestion and health. Cooking is also known to diminish the nutritional value of food, but where do the nutrients go? They don’t disappear. Instead, the heat actually causes chemical changes in your food creating many of the carcinogens, mutagens, free-radicals and other toxins that are associated with many of today’s diseases, from diabetes and arthritis to heart disease and cancer.”

 

I’m not trying to “sell” you on becoming a RAW foodist. I’m not trying to convince you that this way of fueling the body is the answer for everyone. I can tell you this: Eating RAW is the answer for me. I’m an athlete. I train HARD- Several times a week. I’m also training for my first Marathon. I’m stronger than ever, leaner than ever, have more energy than ever, and feel fabulous. And, YES, I’m getting all the protein I need. So, here’s the disclaimer: No, I’m not a nutritionist. No, I’m not a “registered dietician”. I’m simply sharing what has worked for me and for countless clients of mine.

 

 

Seriously,…what could be simpler than filling your shopping cart with fresh organic produce , then going home, washing it, and eating it?

 

This doesn’t have to be hard. Dumb it down. Simplify. Grab an apple and go!