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.

But I don’t feel old!

For some time now, I’ve been wanting to get back into the old school, traditional Taekwondo training I did years and years ago.  The heart and essence of my early martial arts education.

We’ve been so busy building our CrossFit Champions business and recently trying to get our martial arts school, Champions Self-Defense Academy, up and running (currently teaching kickboxing, and another instructor there teaching Judo) that its been hard to think of doing anything for ourselves.

Well, last month, I finally decided it was time to look into getting back into it.  I did some research and decided to give Cho’s Taekwondo a try.  Based on what I read on their website, they specifically practice non-sport, non-WTF, non-Olympic-style-TKD, traditional Taekwondo.  In fact, Master Jason Cho’s uncle is Hee-Il Cho…a very famous, old school, original pioneer of Taekwondo.

Count me in.

Though I am in good shape, I knew I would need to ease my way back in.  Take it slow.

Yeah…

Excitement and enthusiasm got the better of me.  Half way through my first class at Cho’s…pulled my right hamstring!  Yep.  Damn.

I guess these tools are a bit rusty.  So, taking some time off…after my 1 class back in, lol.  Hopefully, I’ll be back in June…taking it easy this time.

In the mean time, I’ll salute the days of old…

Back in the saddle again…

Regarding this blog and my training.

So I am definitely finding that you can’t train like an idiot as you get older.  Or maybe more correctly, I can’t.  I’ve heard it many times and am now living it – that everything you did wrong or have neglected doesn’t just get a pass for more abuse but is kept track of and accumulated until you reach a tipping point.  It starts to hint at you in your early-mid 30′s.  A little ache here.  A little longer to ‘get over’ a tough WOD or night out or bad food.  By the time 40 hit I had a bull’s eye square on my back.  Quite literally my lower back.

So it wasn’t a lift per se that got me or the weight that day but tight hamstrings, tight calves, not scaling when I wasn’t training consistently and there was some ego added to make it more fun.  And then I tried coming back too soon.  Repeatedly.

So when I hit 41 and injured my shoulder you’d think I had learned but you’d be wrong.  Holy cow!  This training stuff is for real!

So this time I really took time off and trained other people like I should have been training myself.  And this time coming back I’ve actually joined a closed class with my husband as my coach.  And baby, I’m tearing up the workouts so far and loving life and training.

It feels good.  To train.  To blog.  To be doing what is so fun about my job.

I’m BACK!

Bouncing back…

Do you remember when you were a kid and you’d go swimming in a backyard pool?  The jump into the deep end the first time is something else.  The bottom seems forever away and impossible to reach.  For some of us, the goal was never to get that deep in the water.  Keep swimming and stay close to the top.  But sometimes, when you get a little daring you’d jump high up, tighten your whole body into a straight line and shoot to the bottom.  If you opened your eyes the water line above seemed crazy far away.   But if you’d gone to the bottom it was easy to launch off and propel yourself to the air above.  It was awesome!   If, however, you didn’t tighten up and shoot to the bottom that change of direction and powerful push wasn’t there to help you get back up to the top.  You had to fight the water you’d just sent down and work hard to kick and pull yourself to the surface.  Hitting bottom isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a person.

When I teach kettlebell deadlifts or sumo deadlift high pull or deadlift itself I always teach to make contact with the ground, let the ground do the work of changing the energy and direction of the weight.  Yes, control it, but don’t stop short of the ground.  If you stop short of touching you are making your back and legs bear the brunt of that direction change.  Why do that to yourself?  Control the weight and the movement but make contact with the bottom.

Hitting bottom is a good thing to have happen to a person, in my opinion.  You find what you’re made of when you’re at the bottom.  In order to come back up you have to really define who you are, what you believe and what is important to you so that you know what you will and won’t put up with and what is and isn’t worth sacrificing for.   Life becomes clear at the bottom.  I also believe that you cannot help a person out of the bottom.  It is a solitary journey and the more you meddle the more you mess it up.  Yes, help if you can…when they’re ready.  Listen for when that is, but leave them to find their way.

They might be resting there.  It is a quiet place, there at the bottom of the pool with the noise above drowned out.  That’s not a bad thing.

Bouncing back up is a good thing but it takes hitting bottom to really be productive.  Hit the bottom and then get on with it!

Carbs are killing you

For all of those out there who hear carbs and think bread only or healthy you should read through this most excellent infographic explaining what makes you fat and how it does it.   It was found on the site – Food and Tech Connect  I’ll hit you with more and more and more places for further reading and info on healthy living.  There is a massive stockpile of info to be read and understood.  A visual option is always good.

Get healthy, get fit.

There are two key concepts that you have to wrap your mind around for getting yourself and your family healthy.

1.  We are not designed to consume everything that comes across our path.  Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.  Gas and bloat and discomfort after meals doesn’t mean the cook did a good job, it means you ate something you shouldn’t have and your body doesn’t like.  You can go get tested at a doctor’s office to find what you might or might not be allergic to but that won’t show the things you’re sensitive to.  The quickest and cheapest way to find out what you run best on is to tighten up the array of foods you consume, eliminate the most notorious allergens and track how you feel, how you train, how you recover and what your weight does.  WRITE THIS DOWN!  The biggest problem food that we consume in this country as far as allergens goes is grains.   Grains cause a whole host of problems throughout the entire body.  If you aren’t sure that your various issues have a tie to grains, try dropping them for 3 weeks.  On that 22nd day, go wild and eat what you’ve been craving.  I can promise you that your body will have started to recover and heal in the time you were off grains and you will make yourself so sick that you’ll wonder how you ate that all those years.  We’ve had over 900 people come through our doors and there hasn’t been one person that hasn’t gotten sick.  Not one.  Yes, there are varying degrees of illness from general upset stomach to full on flu-like illness but every person has had the same reaction.

2.  Outside of grains, excess sugar is the biggest health threat out there today.   And here’s the problem…your body sees every carbohydrate not as a bowl of rice or heart healthy whole grain bread or even a twinkie but it sees it all as sugar.  It doesn’t matter the form you’re patting yourself on the back for getting.  And, yes, fruit is good for you but in its natural state (not a fiberless juice) and when its in season for your area and not in the amazing quantities that we’re consuming it in.  There are children today who have grown up on fruit, fruit and more fruit and they are killing their livers before they ever get to college and alcohol.  Fructose is processed in the liver and all of that healthy sugar is setting these kids up for a lifetime of weight and health issues.  Outside of fruit consumption there is sugar in every darned thing on a grocery store shelf.  We just aren’t built to process so much.

Healthy needs to be your goal in life.  A number on a scale is not telling you the whole truth about yourself.  Neither is your BMI number.  Neither one takes bone density or muscle mass into consideration when labeling you too heavy or obese.  Skinny fat is real and is not healthy even though a scale and BMI would say otherwise.  Your goal needs to be capable of doing anything you want to do.  How you look should be the side effect.

Adjust your vision.  Healthy is where its at.

Here comes Woodrow Call Munson-SCRATCH THAT!

For the last 18 years I have only had Dachshunds.  My boy, Bosco, only left this world last October but he left behind a big hole in my life.  Yes, we have two other dogs.  And two cats.  But the cats are cats and as independent as can be and the dogs are not mine.  Jeb is Matt’s dog and Kiki is Mia’s and although they both are sweet to everyone in the house they have their people that they love the most.  So I’ve been looking around at dogs for a while.  Purebreds are outrageous in price, to me anyway, and I just can’t justify it.  I decided not to go the dachshund route again although that’s been a hard one to stick to.  We went to Poodle Rescue of Houston because that’s where Mia found Kiki but there just wasn’t a right match to be found.  I want what Matt and Mia have…that four-legged kid that is MINE!  So yesterday we went to the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals because that’s where Matt found Jeb…and we found TJ.

He’s bigger than I said I wanted but he’s also a doll and a nut from what we could tell hanging out with him for a half hour.  He was ready to leave with us as soon as we walked in the door.  We’ll actually take him home tomorrow (they had to get him fixed first) so he can meet his new crazy family.  And we’re changing his name to Woodrow Call.  Every dog in our life has a movie or book character name.  I’ve had an Augustus McCray previously and this little guy seems more like a Woodrow than a TJ.  Plus, I don’t know what his life was like before me and what’s tied to TJ so he’s starting fresh.  Expect to see him about at the gym.  I’m very excited!

**UPDATE** I’ve named him Bear.  Woodrow kept becoming Woody and that was bugging me as it kept sounding like there should be a tie in to Toy Story.  Plus, he lumbers along.  Not to say he’s not fast but…well…he’s not.  Kiki is springy and agile and quick.  Jeb is fast.  Bear is not.  He’d rather plow through than jump over.  He almost became Tank because that would fit him also.   He can cut like nobody’s business and he’s clever.  Bear fits.

Size 6

The size on the tag means as much as the number on a scale and that means very, very little.

What really matters is what I see in the mirror, how I feel, whether I have energy all day.  What really matters is my health and strength, both physical and mental.  Do I think clearly?  Can I keep up with my life?  Am I at peace with my decisions and practices?  A number on a tag means nothing.

I love CrossFit for the strength I have in mind and body that I’ve gained over the past 6 years.  Workouts that test my resolve can’t be found on a treadmill.  They can’t be found with 3 sets of 10 reps.  Those things don’t scare me or make me question myself.  When I walk in the gym to work out there’s hardly a WOD that doesn’t make me question my sanity going into it and feel like I can take on the world coming out of it.

So in that regard I let the media and fashion industries off the hook because its not about them.  Its all about my own choices.  I’m not a victim of their marketing campaigns.  I choose to ignore their ideals and make up my own mind with my own ideals.   In order to feel inferior in their eyes I have to accept their opinions and I don’t.  You live your life how you want to.  Ignore the haters and the un-informed.  They aren’t worth my time or yours.