We had another busy Friday evening at the Fort last night. The workout was a sight  for sore eyes…unless your legs were already feeling the wrath of the walking lunges from Wednesday. Most of you were feeling pretty good in the legs, it was your “shrugging muscles” that were causing the problem. To sum it up, it hurt pretty badly to be indifferent.

The workout was:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Ball slams (30/20)
Box jumps (24/20)
Goblet squats (24/16kg)

Everyone did a great job with this workout! Bill was talking to a few people about his idea….he wants to get 40 and 50lb slam balls. Who wants a 50lb slam ball!? NOT ME!

Notice anything especially exciting about this picture OTHER than Jamie’s rack? Check out her left foot – THE BOOT IS GONE! The funny part is that she still walks like she’s wearing the boot. We’re glad you’re almost back to normal Jamie!

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Every now and then, a workout comes along that's hard, exhausting, but juuuust right. You don't finish the workout feeling like your head is going to overheat, or like you're about to go pray to the porcelain gods. You finish feeling tired, but you have a smile in your face. That's EXACTLY what yesterday's WOD from our WODFather was like.

12:00 AMRAP
3 power cleans (60/40kg)
6 push-ups
9 squats

There were more smiling faces and nodding heads after this workout than ever before. Just ask Kirsten...she'll tell you how great it was!

There are a lot of events listed on the whiteboard these days, so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for all the fun stuff! We have a train crawl tomorrow night, a Paleo breakfast on 1/29, a Fogo outing planned for 2/5, and the Better Body Challenge IV starting on 2/7. Don't miss these fun events!

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When I walked in the Fort last night I heard a very familiar voice. I thought for a second that my ears were playing tricks on me, until I saw with my own two eyes that KILO has made a triumphant return to the Fort! Kilo and his lovely fiance, Kourtney, are set to be married this May, and he wants to get back to his former lean and glorious self. We're so glad to have you back!

While some of you have the scale momentum heading downward, these days I have the scale momentum going UPward. Thanks to Tommy Mo for pointing out that I look like I've doubled in size. It only took 35 minutes for Bill to talk me off the ledge. It's a good thing I've known Tom for so long.

The workout yesterday was

5 rounds:
20 walking lunges
15 KB swings (24/16kg)
20 sit-ups

Everyone did a fantastic job! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw one of our newest members, Rosie, swinging the big 16kg bell for this workout! Atta girl!

I want to give a big shout out to Steph for planning this Saturday's group outing. She put a lot of thought into the Train Crawl, and I hope you can all go! If you need more information, you can find the Train Crawl information either on the CFF website, or on Facebook. Thanks Steph for putting this together!

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With great cakes comes GREAT responsibility. And believe me, this cake is super great. Because of this cake I have received 3 proposals of marriage, and one request to make out with me. Yep, it's just that good.

I share this recipe reluctantly, but only because I know people have a tendency to go overboard with the "paleo treats". Let's use a little common sense and remember that if you are trying to lose weight, you wouldn't eat dessert EVERY DAY, right? Just because this recipe contains no grains, dairy, or refined sugars doesn't give you the green light to indulge as often as you feel the urge. Make this a treat for special occasions.

12 oz Nestle dark chocolate chips (or other 70%ish dark chocolate chips)
1/4 c. hot fresh espresso
~1 T. fresh espresso grinds
1 T. organic vanilla
1 T. cinnamon
4 heaping T of cocoa powder
3T agave nectar
1/4 c. unsweetened pineapple juice
6 eggs, room temperature
2 sticks butter, room temperature

In a large food processor, process the agave, cinnamon, espresso grinds, and chocolate chips. Process until roughly mixed, but not creamy. Now add the pineapple juice and hot espresso. Blend for ~5 seconds until creamy. Add the cocoa powder, vanilla, eggs, and butter. Process until smooth, making sure to scrape the sides. Transfer the delicious batter to a greased springform pan, trying your best not to eat it all before it hits the pan. Bake at 350 for about 45-50 minutes. This will turn out dense like a flourless cake. Serve cold or room temperature with sliced strawberries. Mmmmm......strawberries......

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Bill and I were sitting at the Village Squire in McHenry enjoying our 1/2 price bunless burgers and veggies on Monday night when he says to me, "So I made up this workout. It's either going to be horrible, or awesome. Tell me what you think". He then explained it to me and I replied stone faced, "that's horrible". Anyone disagree?

5 rounds for max number of pull-ups
With 1:30 on the clock:

25 burpees
max pull-ups
1:30 rest between rounds

You had 1:30 to get your burpees done, and then RACE to the pull-up bar to get as many pull-ups as possible in the remaining time. If for any reason you didn't complete your 25 burpees, you entered burpee purgatory. GASP! At the end of the workout, whatever burpees you didn't complete, you now owed to your WODFather. Make sure to get in your burpees, and kiss his ring before you leave the Fort.

Ryan the Lion took home top honors for this workout by completing an amazing 77 pull-ups! GREAT JOB!

If you have been following along with the CrossFit main site, then you know there is a "beat the team" online challenge that is currently taking place. Again Faster has put together a team of complete badass CrossFitters, and they perform a monthly series of workouts and post their videos online. If anyone can "beat the team" and take home a top time for the series of workouts, your gym can win cool equipment packages. Pretty cool, huh? Ryan Zbierski has decided to try his hand at beating the team, and in December he placed 26th overall! Great job Ryan! The first January event has already been announced, and you can see all Ryan's video submissions here.

Let's talk about a common issue we have in the winter; your snowy shoes. Please, for the love of Suri Cruise, bring dry gym shoes to the Fort. When you walk in the door, remove your snowy shoes on the RUGS, leave them there, and then put on your dry shoes. If everyone could please leave their wet shoes on the rugs, this would keep the front waiting area and the gym floor a LOT dryer. Starting tonight if you don't have dry shoes, you will be asked to workout in your socks.

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If you sprinkle bread crumbs in the grass, within an hour you're likely to have a whole yard full of birds and squirrels. Yesterday, we weren't trying to lure birds to the Fort though, we were trying to lure EARL. You see, Earl has been missing for quite some time, and we miss him dearly. He told us that yesterday was the BIG DAY that he would make his return to the Fort, so Bill planned one of his favorite workouts - ISABEL!

Isabel - 30 snatches for time (60/40kg)

Earl holds the 2nd spot on our record board for this workout, so naturally he's very fond of it. We thought for sure that it was a fool proof way to see his inflexible hamstrings back at the Fort, but alas....no Earl. Sigh.

Those of you who WERE at the Fort yesterday did AMAZING! Hannah and Steph both went through this rx'd for the first time, and they crushed it! Through their sneaky teamwork and massive strength they even managed to knock me off the record board. (d'oh) Seriously though, I'm proud of you guys.

Brad set a HUGE PR on this workout too. Not only did he load an extra 10kg's on his bar this time around, he also beat his old by by 1:06! Great work buddy!

We started a new group ramp-up last night, and it was a total blast! Thank you to all the participants for your enthusiasm.

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As the old saying goes, you can lie to me, but you can't lie to yourself.

You can show me a food log, but only YOU know if everything you ate and drank is in there. You can pout, cry, bitch and moan about how you aren't making any progress but at the end of the day, have you been honest with yourself? Have you quantified the magnitude of your "cheat meals"? Have you stepped back to examine the impact the holidays had on your eating? I mean, 8 helpings of mashed potatoes won't slow down progress, will it? And the fact that you drank so much on New Year's Eve that you threw up on your favorite suede shoes shouldn't impact your weight loss, right?

Lie to me, baby. You can lie to me until you're blue in the face, but deep inside I already know if what you're telling me is the truth. If it makes you feel better to be dishonest about how you're eating, that's fine. I won't take it personally. At the end of the day when you're staring in the mirror and brushing your teeth, the person staring back at you knows the truth. I'd say something corny here like, "And the truth shall set you free!" but it doesn't seem to apply.

Know what does apply? Effort. Apply maximum effort to every area of your life and you'll see the results you're looking for. Make an effort to get 8 hours of sleep. Make an effort to get to the Fort one more time this week. Make an effort to go 30FULL DAYS without straying from the Paleo diet. Take that first step (or a GIANT LEAP) and try something hard. Try being honest with yourself.

There, have some tough love. I still love you.

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