Bigger, Faster, Stronger

Posted on March 31, 2015 by tosabarbell

bigger

 It is nearly a weekly occurrence that I hear the words, “I eat tons of food but just can’t gain weight.” Often times it is in conjunction with those who want to be a key player in their sport, or more athletic, or faster on the field of play. Take your pick. In the majority of those cases, as we know, a gross misunderstanding ensues of what “eating a ton” actually looks like.

BTW, this mostly applies to boys and men but not always. I have seen girls/women refuse to eat, even when they have ended up in the hospital so they don’t get bigger. Yet they whine when coach won’t let them play. Mind boggling. But that’s not the point of today.

Today is about BIGGER, cuz there’s a reason it’s listed first in Bigger, Faster, Stronger. Ya think? Is it possible that faster and stronger comes when we decide to fuel our bodies to get BIGGER? And yes, bigger is subjective. There are people out there who are incredibly athletic and explosive at lighter weights, they’re called wrestlers. Or weightlifters. But don’t misunderstand a weight class for small. The lower weight class athletes have packed on as much muscle as possible on their small frames.

My Hungarian training partner, Mari, has added 16 kilos to her former fitness competitor frame and sits at 66kg now. Guess which body she loves more? Yup, the strong one. The BIGGER one. I am in awe of her progress. I guess eating to get BIGGER and training with a World Champion weightlifter while being completely dedicated has it’s benefits.

biggerm

But Mari understood that she had to get BIGGER in order to get STRONGER. Duh.

My first question to someone who wants to get BIGGER and train is always, ‘What’d you have for breakfast today?’ The usual answer is something like, “Wellllllll, I really don’t like breakfast.” Huh. Okay, ‘when is the first time you ate then?’ We then go down the list of food for the day:

9am: Granola Bar, maybe a banana thrown in.

Noon: Regular lunch, piece of pizza with some fruit.

Dinner: Ya know, supper food but I eat a lot of it.

Ummmmkay, but you can’t train here to get FASTER and STRONGER cuz you are refusing the process of getting BIGGER. Like Katy, where this status update showed up on her Timehop yesterday:

biggerk

This was after a training session in which she power cleaned a light bar and oooooooh so slowly and gracefully laid down on the ground afterwards. Which prompted the conversation of why I couldn’t train her. Well, some talking and tears later, she promised to eat; log her food; and take this BIGGER thing seriously so she could train. And she did. I’m very proud of her. She still has a healthy grasp on what fuel is needed to feel good even if she’s not training as hard as she was then. Winning.

If FASTER, STRONGER is a priority, BIGGER can’t be skipped. Really. It’d be like singing that ABC’s song and skipping A. What’s the point? You’ve just skipped the most important letter, why continue?

THIS, is first breakfast (yes, the Hobbit’s had their shit straight when it comes to food):

biggerb

This is second breakfast:

biggers

This is first lunch:

biggerl

This is second lunch:

bigger2

This is snack:

bigger3

Dinner:

bigger6

Just one of the plates, come on, two would be silly.

Don’t forget the night night snack…

bigger7

And there ya go. If you don’t eat anything even resembling the above, don’t tell me how much you eat. Cuz you’re lying. Oh I know, you don’t mean to. You just don’t know. But now you know. Also, don’t tell me how much you want to get faster or stronger without giving a concerted effort to eating. You won’t get BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER and you’ll blame me when it’s actually YOUR inability to accept eating food.

The other day we were on an errand running marathon. At some point, I realized that it’d been a couple of hours and we weren’t even close to being done. Since I was driving, I declared a snack stop. We buzzed into Wendy’s (have you ever had one of those little mini-Frosty’s? They’re delish.) I actually got a mini sammich, Matt got three or four mini-burgers and then I get to Oz (reminding him that this is a snack break) and he orders this:

biggeroz Because for the Ozman, this is a snack.

 I have seen Oz demolish a 30 ounce steak without skipping a beat. The dude eats and yes, his big ‘ol Polynesian frame helps him out a bit. But Oz likes BIGGER. The stronger and faster is something he’s working on and he has some amazing help in getting there. But BIGGER? He’s on it.

True story.

My body is like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t think about it, I just have it.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

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Friday Jams: Bushwood

Posted on March 20, 2015 by tosabarbell

I was grocery shopping yesterday and as I entered the produce section looking for good Games snacks, it hit me that I’m shopping for the first Highland Games of the season. Wait…whut? Uhhhhhhh, exsqueeze me, where did the off-season go? Really, where did it go?

I swear it was just a couple of weeks ago I threw in the Texas heat among the lion roars and enjoyed one of the best post-Games meals I’ve had at the food truck court. Srsly, it’s also the last time I’ve tossed the Sheaf so tomorrow should be interesting. But here we are, Games 1, The Shammies.

The good news is that we’re supposed to have the warm spring sun beating down on us, errr, I mean everyone else NOT inside a horse coliseum throwing in a wind tunnel with about a foot of dirt as our trigs. Heh. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. For as much dirt as there is, this is the Games where we blow that winter stink off our throws and start to get a feel of how our off-season went. I’ve had a chance to throw a couple of times and started to log what I need to work on the next few weeks before the next one.

Our first half of the season is very tame but incredibly exciting this year. After tomorrow’s Games, I look forward to the Oz man being home for Spring Break; kids birthdays (all of them, Oz on the 3rd and twins on the 7th…for 16 years now I have been completely broke by April 8th. Heh); Easter and then Hawaii. Yup, I get to throw in Hawaii. The Motherland.

See, sometimes I get these ideas and I say to my hubs, ‘I have an idea’ and he’s cute enough to try not to say “uh oh.” We were hoping to take Zandra on  a spring break to Amsterdam but with some schedule and job changes, that didn’t work out. I’ve spoken enough about her tough start to 2015 and so I thought, if we have enough miles, maybe she and I should try to take a trip. Well, miles worked out and it just so happens, since she works for a Hyatt that we get a bangin’ rate in Waikiki (I’ve already told her she can never quit this job. Ever.) She was able to talk to her BFF (and yes, these two amazingly silly young ladies will most likely be BFF’s forever) into coming too so we meet up with her at the Minneapolis airport and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

To be around their energy, yes, it’s exhausting but it’s also exhilarating. I adore them, let’s see if I say that after sharing a hotel room with them for 5 days. Hee. Anyways, these girls work harder than most real adults I know and to be able to help them chill in paradise for a few days makes this mom’s heart glow. The bonus to this whole trip is that two of the German throwers, Michaela and Petra will be there throwing too!! It will be amazing. I’ve never been to Oahu and even though schedules prevent my Auntie from making the jaunt over from Maui, I’ll still get to wave to her from the beach.

I have a backyard Games at the end of April ala Jason Clevenger, yeah! Bigg guy is bailing for the 3 Floyds Dark Lord Day, something he’s been looking forward to for about a year now. We take a break in May, instead of hitting Merl’s May Games, we’re taking the Oz man for his Birthday surprise trip to Indiana to participate in a WWII reenactment (some boys dream of playing in the big leagues, this is HIS big leagues and we are SO thankful to Craig Morehead for helping us out with it.)

selfoss

And in June, we go to Iceland. We just got the go ahead this week and I think we’re still both in shock at the thought of not only traveling to a place that has been on top of our “musts” for years now, but getting a chance to throw there. We are beyond excited about it and in some weird way, I’m cautious of saying too much in case it makes me wake up from this “we’re going to go throw in Iceland” dream. We’ll miss our hometown Games but oh well. Ya know, Iceland.

And that’s it. We’re going to try to stay home bound until late July. We can hopefully meet up with our Scottish flat mates this summer in Minnesota but other than that, practice; rest; and enjoy summer. Last year, I entered the critical second half of the season exhausted and sore and I want to avoid that this year plus ya know…older.

A bunch of Games peeps have already kicked off their season, many others are getting underway this weekend too. Women’s World Championships are this weekend down in Phoenix, strong throws Katie and Jessica and save travels to all!

So here we are, 2015 Games season. Really? Really. FoShizzle.  We don’t know what this season has in store for us but hopefully it will be safe for all with PR’s here and there and of course, a shit ton of fun (did you think I’d make it through a post without cussing? Come’on!)

You’re a lot of woman, ya know that? Yeah, wanna make 14 dollars… the HARD way? 

Al Czervik

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Stronger. Together.

Posted on March 17, 2015 by tosabarbell

teamwork

I had an interesting, and eye opening, talk yesterday with some friends about AA and it’s origins. One thing that really stuck to me was the idea that AA’s founders, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, decided that together they could stay sober for a day. Not separate, but together.

Personally, I found that very powerful. To acknowledge that you cannot stay sober for a day on your own, but you and your buddy, huddled in a room together talking it out can keep you clean for a day. And then tomorrow they do it all over again.

It really dialed in a lot of AA concepts I had been aware of by going through different treatment programs with family members and I’m appreciative for the talk.

Stronger. Together.

A concept sorely lacking these days. We are so quick to throw each other under the bus, gawds, it’s almost comical how “offended” we can pretend to be for personal pettiness. We’re offended when people disagree with our politics (for the record, don’t talk about politics with me. I do care about them but in all likelihood disagree with you and am too nice to say you’re a fucking idiot to your face. I don’t care what politicians sound like, look like, dress like, or their latest verbal gaffe. They all have layers of governmental jizz on their face and they like it. Try to find one with enough wet naps in their pocket and there’s your guy.  ‘Nuff said.)

We want to be offended by friends, enemies, the coffee clerk, our silly friends (you don’t have silly friends? That sucks.) We want to be offended by what’s written on blogs. Hilarious. Seriously? You want to be so shallow and cunty that some blog interferes with your being a good person in real life? SRSLY? We want to be offended when we get beat. Fo realz. I have heard people come off the field/court/platform immediately bitching that they weren’t treated as well as the next guy. Hey, ya know what cures that? Getting better. You, work harder. Get better. But don’t blame the ref’s cuz the first thing you learn in sports is that if you leave it up to the Ref’s to grant you a win or loss, you’ll lose. If you didn’t you got lucky and if you’re going to leave it up to luck to succeed, well, let’s see how that goes for the long haul.

We join groups and committees and then bitch in them without putting a dent into the ideal as to why the group exists in the first place because we’re too busy fighting with each other. This, again, is why I’m hardly on the internet anymore. Forums, yuck. No thank you. Video’s of baby elephants playing in a kiddie pool? Yes please.

I have six days left of being 47 and I’m just too old to play these games. We all have different opinions and ways to go through life. If yours is unhealthy and you wish to circle the wagons to protect yourselves from the likes of me and all others who offend you, good. Contain that shit. I want no part of it. Because we’re busy over here building our tribe. The people who also recognize that together, we’re stronger. We can accomplish more, quicker, in a healthier way that benefits us all in the long run. We can forego our needs for the betterment of the tribe because we trust that not only will our needs be meant, but we’ll receive more than we could ever have imagined.

We understand that to be stronger together, we need to open up and talk it out a little more. Listen a lot more. Find common ground and build from there. And ya know what? It’s okay if we don’t find common ground. It’s okay if we’ve run the course of our friendship. That happens. People change, views change. I wonder why we have this belief that we have to be bfF’s…forever. We’re not 12 anymore, it’s okay when we go different ways. We’re old enough to recognize that our lives are enriched from a friendship that is no longer. We wish each other well and send off good energy when we feel the other needs it. And in our own spiritual way, that’s still together.

In my whole almost one year of marriage, this rings true more than anything. Sure, we can get caught up in what we’re NOT getting from our partner and find at least 100 offenses a day. Or we can realize that we’re stronger together and do whatever it takes to make sure that link stays solid. My first line of defense? The Bigg guy. Good luck with that. His? Me and I’m pretty sure very few of you have seen me in protective mode. You think everyday Juli is intense? Ya, not even close when you come after my husband. No matter who you are. Because as strong as we are in body, it shouldn’t compare to what we are in spirit. Together.

People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

Vince Lombardi

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Friday Jams: Victory Lap

Posted on March 13, 2015 by tosabarbell

I caught a quick interview clip yesterday with LL Cool J. Now, I was probably a freshman in college when LL and his pals started making rap more mainstream (yes, I’m that old. I also remember Dairy Queen without the Blizzards. True story.) We all know Rap and variations of it had been around for a while before that, but LL brought it to the white kids. He had, still has actually, a quality about him. A bit hood, maybe, but not really. Well spoken, he always seemed to have a good head on his shoulders and stayed out of trouble.

He has style along with almost an approachable and charismatic personality. Anyways, I’ve always like him even though I could never get into Rap. He was in a shark movie once where nearly everyone was eaten, of course. Even Samual L. was munched and to kill him off was pretty badass.  LL made it to the end and I was glad.

Anyways.

In the interview, he was asked some stupid Hollywood interview question as to biggest regrets or if there’s something he hasn’t done yet that he wants too. Ya know, nothing of real value. Until he spoke. LL said that with each success, he instantly looks towards the next venture. What’s up next? How does he make it the best? Something he hadn’t done very well up unto this point is to celebrate each success.

Ya know, take a couple of victory laps.

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, GREEN BAY PACKERS AT SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

I liked it. I wonder if it’s a common theme among people who are highly driven and/or have high expectations of themselves? That we reached our goal is good, we expect to. That we fail to recognize how high our goals were…well, that’s probably normal. There’s always work to do to be better. And I guess sometimes that gets in the way of recognizing how far we’ve come.

There’s about 100 people who come to mind when I think of friends/family who should be taking a few more victory laps in life. I hope they do so. They’ve earned them.

You probably have too. Go ahead, even if it’s only around the dining room table or your cubie or your classroom’s. No one’s watching (but your co-workers probably are and are grabbing their phones to get that shit on video so make it good.) True story.

If you do cardio one day and the next day you can do weights, do it that way. If you need to do it at night or in the morning, do it that way. Whatever you need to get done, just get it done.

LL Cool J

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