I have 5 girls. No distended guts, but I understand.
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Congrats! 
Congrats! 
Congrats! 
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No lie, this is my back-up plan in life.
DUDE. For real. It’s terrible.
I will never not have Miralax in my house ever again. lol
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You could do it as a side gig right now! Then as you get famous, make it your full time thing. And I’ll be your bodyguard just off stage when you do your Netflix special. 
Have you ever tried the ZuPoo supplement from Umzu? They have great digestive enzymes too.
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Nothing worse than “back up plan”… 
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No, you’ll be my personal assistant and basically all that means is you’ll get to chill with me in my dressing room. Oh, and also you’ll need to make sure it’s always stocked with cottage cheese. I freaking love that stuff. lol
I haven’t! I will check it out and the enzymes too. I’ve been using Regular Girl for a few years and it’s been doing what the name implies, but I’m always up for trying something different and it gives me more range when I give recs to clients too!
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Heck yeah! I did have to lay off it a bit because it makes me zitty. 
If that’s working then don’t change a thing! Gotta stick with whatever gets you results. And thanks for dropping that here, if my stuff becomes ineffective I’ll switch!
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Lower body + luteal phase. Went lighter than last time on the leg press, but about the same on the glute and ham isolation lifts, then hit abs.
Got a shooting competition that I’m not prepared for tonight. Should be fun.
This blanket-worm sends you snuggles from Colorado.
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I 
blanket dogs.
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Good luck and I’m sure you will do great!
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The Novelty Effect
There’s an idea simmering in my brain that has to do with novelty.
A little over a decade ago most people in fitness were outspokenly critical of CrossFit and talked about how novelty in exercise selection is stupid and prevents you from making progress. But then when I actually tried it to see for myself, I found it to be pretty delightful. Beyond just fitness, I believe it did something to us, mentally.
The sense of mastering skill after skill is one of the biggest confidence builders I can recall. It increased enjoyment, added an element of playfulness, had a built-in supportive community, and as a result, it increased everyone’s motivation to improve and be consistent.
The intensity of CrossFit is what eventually broke my body, but the novelty aspect (probably combined with community) is the part that led to the most satisfaction. It put people in a position to constantly surprise themselves and end up saying stuff like, “I didn’t know I could do that!”
CrossFit is obviously not the best form of fitness for everyone, but I think it can teach us something about the joy of trying stuff and learning how to improve. There’s also something special about picking up skills that aren’t on most people’s Bingo card for you.
To take it even further, I have this wacky theory that dabbling in healthy forms of novelty prevents people from doing destructive things that they regret later on (self-harm, infidelity, addiction, etc.). I could be way off base with that idea but I wonder if my sister would be alive if she’d found a healthy way to take risks instead of the whole eating disorder + alcoholism thing.
My thought is that novelty and skill acquisition create a level of excitement and validation that do more for the psyche (or mine at least) than most modern temptations.
In the words of the famous female ensemble of the late 1900s:
Colours of the world
Spice up your life
Every boy and every girl
Spice up your life
People of the world
Spice up your life
– Spice Girls
Other, Somewhat-Related Stuff
The competition was pretty fun last night. Everyone told me I did well, but I still got second-to-last place.
You know what though? Those guys were so good! It was an honor to even shoot with them. Even the guy I beat did an amazing job; I actually didn’t think my score would top his. So, I’m happy.
What was actually more satisfying was the challenge and the feeling of being competent at something most people never try.
I won the award for best spinal erectors.
This sweet man prevented me from a couple blunders before my timer even went off.
Mag change on the move.
And on the note of trying stuff, Chris and I are taking our first stand-up class tonight. It’s one night a week for about two months and then at the end you have a five minute set that you present on performance night. And with that set, you can go to open mic nights at local clubs around town.
So we’ve both been collecting and jotting down stuff we find funny. Most of it will go in the trash but a few ideas will get fleshed out and used to make people laugh… or not.
The cool thing is, this is actually a fail-proof class. The instructor is so good that he will plant himself in the audience and react supportively to all of his students. We got to see this happen last month. There’s plenty of opportunity to feel awkward, but you can’t really bomb.
So if I could give a word of advice nobody asked for – aside from the obvious biggie of find God, follow Jesus – it would be to seek out healthy novelty. Surprise yourself a bit.
Thank you for coming to my not-so-TED Talk.
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Same. They’re like little doggie burritos.
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Thanks girlfriend! It was a lot of fun. 
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If you look closely, you can see the bullet leaving the gun.
Also, this is an ad for the hip thrust machine.
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That foot position is what I catch flack for in classes. Both feet should’ve been planted. Ug.
Thanks for appreciating my butt! #BestHusbandEver
CrossFit pushes you hard. I liked the sense of mutual encouragement. It gets you in good shape but I found it hard on the joints - my shoulders ached for two years and the broad emphasis lowered my bench abilities. I had a good instructor who emphasized Olympic lifts and less of the high volume jump on the box idiocy. But there was still plenty of that in the CrossFit Games. It remains to be seen if it can reemerge again.
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That is really Awesome! 
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Hey @Dani_Shugart. Are there any iron supplements you recommend? Vitamin C too, for that matter, if you’ve ever used any. (Paging @Chris_Shugart too - I looked and didn’t think TN had put any in the Stuff We Like section.)
There’s just so many options out there, and I thought you two might have more reliable input on a quality source.
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Yes! Sometimes to a fault.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I know what you mean. The coaches where I went treated every session like a competition. And when you feel pressured to go heavier, go faster, and take less rest, it can become risky. But it’s a catch-22; the competitive nature of it is so much fun it can make people overlook a lot of accumulating injuries and keep showing up.
That’s really good. Ours loved the O-lifts too. She was a great coach, but the pressure to go all out every workout was too much for my 33 year old (at the time) body.
The personal trainer I hired, after doing CF, told me that one of his clients had broken her hip doing CrossFit. I believe she was super young too, like late twenties.
I don’t think it’s ever gone away. It became less trendy, but it seems about as common as competitive bodybuilding.
I stopped CrossFit due to Covid. But there’s this.