Welcome

Welcome to One Foot Over The Line, the personal blog of Matt and Pam Munson.

Why would you want to follow this blog?  Who knows!  Maybe you’ll find some entertainment here.  Maybe a little education and humor.  Maybe some insight into the craziness of small business ownership and the building of community.

Whatever.  No matter what, we hope you enjoy yourself.

Your numbers don’t matter.

I’m talking BMI here.  And I don’t care what that number is.  It tells me less than nothing about you health-wise but that number can limit you over your lifetime, not due to any real reason but because it is a broken idea the government uses to tell if you are healthy or not.

In the 90′s there was a lot of hubbub about the changes to the BMI numbers that the government was making.  The World Health Organization had a differing definition of what the normal/over weight cut-off should be than the US definition.  We gave folks a little more leeway.  When you are reading shocking numbers stating that in the late 90′s the country suddenly got fatter it is most likely tied to this definition change.  Prior to ’98 the US mark for over weight BMI numbers was 27.8.  The change, bringing us in line with the WHO, dropped it to 25.  This took a large portion of the population from healthy weight one day to overweight the next.  How awesome is that?! (1) Prior to the controversy, I had never heard of BMI.  Maybe I just hadn’t listened.  Maybe its because I’ve always been on the skinny side.  Don’t know, don’t care.

What I do know is that as someone who lifted a LOT and had a larger than the average female’s worth of muscle (this isn’t really that hard to do) I thought it was ignorant of any medical professional to determine my fatness not by measuring my fatness but by just measuring my height and weight.  Muscle weighs more than fat.  Someone with a lot of muscle is going to have a higher BMI relative to someone of the same height with less muscle.  Bodybuilders are considered obese.  Professional athletes are considered obese.  A muscled up college athlete going into the military (which uses BMI as a factor in determining fitness for enlisting) will need to drop muscle to be considered healthy.  What?!

I read an article that pointed out these issues at the time.  The article noted that Picabo Street – World Cup Alpine ski racer – and Oprah Winfrey – talk show host with publicly noted, fussed over, challenging weight issues – have the same BMI!!  How’s this make sense that such measurement could possibly be used to determine the health or not of either woman?  Picabo is mostly muscle and Oprah is mostly not.  They are not the same fitness levels.  Never have been.

This isn’t a hate on Oprah or body fat or love on muscle post.  This is a “BMI is a ridiculous and in-effective tool for measuring health” post.  So when I say I don’t care about what your BMI numbers are, I’m being literal.  I also don’t care much about how much you weigh.  My eyes and your eyes can tell if you’re carrying excess body fat.  And excess is a relative term anyway.  You rock the body you have.  And if you don’t like it in its current form then change it.  That’s the super fantastic thing about bodies…they are changeable and shapeable!  Make it what you want or learn to love it but don’t get upset by any measuring tool that doesn’t differentiate between your various components.

(1) From the article Do You Believe in Fairies, Unicorns and BMI? at MAA.org  Super funny and thought provoking article.  Worth the time to read!

Pam’s Day 69 – Abs

One day last week was a roller coaster.  It ties in to monthly stuff.  It just was a day.

Everyone has their idea of what is ok for themselves and what is not.  Our ideal self.  We also know that comparison is the surest way to feel bad about ourselves.  It really doesn’t matter what someone else has or does or thinks about us.  Unless they are paying for and caring for you they get no say so. (On a side note, this is the danger of being beholden to any government body for things in your life. The one who is taking responsibility for you gets to have say so over you.  Like your parents.  Think about it.) Back on topic, it doesn’t matter what someone else thinks in positive or negative regarding you as an individual.

I had to remind myself of that one day last week.  Repeatedly.  Matt has the patience of a saint, I kid you not.  He listened to me go on about too many mean-to-me things and held his tongue, only giving input a couple of times because he knew it was pointless.  And then he threw Jeremiah under the bus with a ‘you tell her she’s wrong’ as he headed off to safety.  What can you say to someone who’s hating on themselves that will be taken with any kind of seriousness?  Not a danged thing.  It was a ride I had to go on by myself.  The thing is that everyone has these days and they have to be kept to a day here or there.  When you’re having a pity party make it big and grand and then wrap it up and move on.  It doesn’t do anyone any good to stay down.

The point is that I forgot I am doing ok and I’ve been comparing myself to other people.  Can’t say I won’t again but this chick isn’t doing too bad.

Day 59 of 365 – Investing in yourself.

(Yep, been a while since I’ve posted…not going to bore anyone with why.)

So, Pam and I just had an AMAZING weekend at AdvoCare Spring Breakthrough.  Oh…my…gosh!  Man, oh man, did I hear some stuff I needed to hear.

Enough to write many posts about.

But, what I got the most was that I need to spend more time investing in myself in personal growth.  I thought I was doing plenty of that.  But after listening to some of the speakers this weekend, and asking myself some tough questions…I realize, I haven’t even scratched the surface in actually putting in the work to be the type of man, husband, father and leader that I want to become.

• Do I on a regular basis add significance to someone else’s life?
• Do I on a regular basis add value to someone else?
• Did I do something significant today?
• If I was grading myself against the utmost standards that I would like to apply to myself…what grade would I give myself today?

I’ve got some work to do.

Pam’s Day 68 – Where our passion is anymore

We, Matt and I, were tearfully questioned about where our passion was anymore since we found AdvoCare almost a year ago. The question was asked at a time when we were making changes to our business and maybe it was just one too many changes for this person who had a lot of changes going on in their life outside of the gym. Whatever the case may be the answer has always been and will always be…

Our passion is creating and enjoying a loving and supportive family. We have two wonderful kids who have been put behind all things CrossFit Champions (business,staff,clients) for too long and that is over. I would hope that would be acceptable and understandable but really don’t care if it isn’t.

Our passion is taking care of others and helping them to find health and mental and physical strength. We have found great joy in helping literally hundreds of people find their true self thru the vehicle of CrossFit Champions. We appreciate CrossFit for what it is and acknowledge its limitations.

Our passion is helping others find and achieve their goals of helping others through exercise and fitness. Most of the CF gyms and trainers close to ours have spun off of our gym (in both positive and negative ways).  We have mentored numerous gyms on business and event management. We have loved being a part of the greater CrossFit community via being involved with Regionals for 3 years, the Games 1 year, Oktoberfest for 4 years, volunteering at numerous affiliate level events around Houston and Texas as well as Oklahoma. We are still passionate about the greater community but are focused, event-wise and staff-wise, in house for the time being.  We’ve got what I think is the best mix of trainers we’ve ever had and loving and helping them accomplish what they are shooting for is super important.

Our passion is helping people, single and families, on a really broad scale to find a better way to be find their path to better health. AdvoCare is whatever any person needs it to be. For folks who are far from the ideal in diet, exercise or health and don’t know how to start on the path we can help. For athletes competing in high school, college, Olympics or professionally there are amazing supplements to help performance, recovery and overall health. For people who need help financially, there are limitless opportunities and we love being able to help!

Our passion is helping people, single and families, to realize that they have choices and options besides working for someone else their entire life.  Helping people to realize that they can man their own ship and control their own destiny is exciting!  Helping them find their way to debt freedom and time freedom and financial freedom.  The traditional system of achieving success via college and working for someone else doesn’t fit everyone anymore.  It doesn’t provide enough for everyone anymore.  Our passion is helping those folks who want a different way.

Day 67 – Stop calling it paleo

I have digestive issues.  Way back when we had insurance I tried to find a doctor to take the symptoms I was dealing with seriously to no avail.  So I quit doctors.  Haven’t been to one in more than 7 years.  If I’m sick, I’ll go but so far there’s been nothing I can’t handle myself.  If there’s an emergency I’ll go deal with that as needed.  Other than emergencies, I find the whole doctor thing to be more frustration and irritation than anything.  That being said, my years of abdominal pain and doctor disinterest lead me to the eating program that we follow today.  Matt found Protein Power Life Plan by Drs. Eades (yes, its husband and wife) followed by Paleo Diet by Dr. Cordain.  Then we found CrossFit.  Glassman’s prescription for diet being at the beginning of the 100 words for fitness, “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat…” fit with what we were looking for.  Simplicity.

The first time we went looking for a Paleo cook book we found ONE grain-free cookbook and a full ZERO paleo cookbooks at Barnes and Noble.  Now, half the dang cookbooks seem to be paleo or grain-free which is awesome and just shows how far the awareness of gluten intolerances/celiac disease/negatives of grain has come.

Our gym has also run the gamut of ‘paleo’ and the longer we’re in it and the farther we go the less we like the definition and cult of paleo.  Not that we don’t still agree with the concept but more that there are so few who can/will stick to the true definition.  Everyone has an exception that’s justified – beer, milk, vinegar, wine, butter, Oreos, etc.  Just because your baked good is free of the traditional definition of flour does not mean it is honest to goodness paleo. That simply means its gluten free.  Big difference.  We don’t call our recipes on this blog paleo because of the sugar content.  And sugar/honey/agave/whatever the trendy sweetener of the moment is are all still seen as simple carbs in the body and processed as such.  Go check out what you actually can and can’t have on a true paleo diet.  You’ll be shocked at what is listed and what is not.

So drop the cape of righteousness and be real.  Find a way to eat as clean as you possibly can which means eat as little processed foods as possible.  Shop the perimeter of the store more than you wander the aisles.  If you haven’t done so yet, you should try a super tight elimination diet for 3-4 weeks and then add in one item at a time and see what your body actually does and doesn’t handle well.  Simple, clean eating from sources you know or trust with as little extras and nothing you can’t pronounce is kind of a long title for a way of eating but its a lot more accurate then calling it “paleo, but…”.

Girl Scout Tagalong Cookies Recipe

We’ve been looking for ways to enjoy classic treats without cheating and this is one of the recipes we found!

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies!

This is a recipe a friend from the Gym gave to me a while back but iv’e just now got around to trying them.  I love them and will definitely be making them again!