Sarah and I are working on our inspiration wall at our new apartment right now.  We create d a list of goals and things we want to achieve through the end of 2012, and all of 2013!

The wall is still a work in progress, but isn’t that how everything in life is?  Always changing and molding itself into something different?

We tried to create a Venn Diagram and Sarah’s goals are on the left, the stuff we want to do together is in the middle and my goals is on the right!

Some things we want to do together are:

Complete the Whole 30 Challenge

Travel (St. Kitts, Bahamas, Lake Tahoe, Atlanta, and Miami)

Read a minimum of 1 book a month

Get a pair of cowboy boots (we live in Texas, so we should probably get a pair…right??!  Right!)

Host some dinner and pool parties

Organize and pre-package food at the beginning of each week

Snowboard, surf, wake board

Some of my personal goals are:

get my Muscle Ups

Qualify with Team Woodward for the 2013 CrossFit Games

Snatch 75kg

Qualify for at least one AVP tournament during Summer 2013

Get a new car

Bring in over $6500/month through coaching, and my own business endeavours

Consistently do a devotional everyday to strengthen my relationship with the Lord

Make more time to go visit my family on open weekends

Get my CrossFit Kids certification, my underground strength certification, and my mobility certification

Win Oktoberfest, Hammer and Chisel, and The Fittest Games with my Woodward CrossFit team!

Start Grad School at the University of Alabama in January 2013

Help people lose over 300lbs over the course of the year through BYB Training!

Beat Your Best Strength and Conditioning, and Personal Training becomes a Household name in Austin

Am active in many FitFluential events

Drink vegetable juice a minimum of once a day!

There are so many amazing things in store for the next year!  If you created an inspiration wall, what would be the top 3 things you would HAVE to have on there?

~Coach Salah

~Coach Salah

Happy Sunday everyone!

So…..I made my first Vlog….it is super awkward, and I didn’t realize how close my face was to the camera.  I also learned that not only do I need to have the camera further away from my face, but my left eye is a tad bit on the lazy side too :-p

*I also didn’t realize that music was playing in the background (if you want to know what I’m listening to its Miguels “Adorn”)

I think I should hire a professional camera man from now on ….lol

I just got done watching the Olympic Beach Volleyball finals with Misty May and Kerri Walsh vs. Ross and Kessey

Misty May and Kerri!

Ross and Kessy

Not only do I find all four of these women inspiring due to their work ethic and how they carry themselves on and off the court, but their healthy lifestyles are ones to be mocked.  With healthy diets, and good workouts, they look amazing (Check out this article)!  Misty May said, “If you want to be in the best shape, diet is super important. You can exercise all you want, but if you’re not eating the right foods, it’s not going to equal out. You’re not going to get the results you want.” I mean, who wouldn’t want to make sure they eat clean when their job is to live in a swimsuit??  I know it would definitely be a big motivation for me!

Even though I love all four of these women, I do have a favorite (even though I don’t have favorites….;-p).  Misty May has got to be celebrity/pro athlete inspiration.  She is someone who I look at and strive to be like. He work ethic and positive attitude is what contributes to her success.  Not only is she extremely athletic and gifted, but her heart and desire are definitely something to be noted.  In order to win consecutive gold medals in a row, it comes down to not just pure athleticism, but shear  love for the game and the refusal to lose.

Her attitude is amazing, and the fact that she always gives credit to Kerri as well is exactly how it should be when you are on a team!

“It’s very similar to a marriage or sisterhood. I don’t have a sister but I consider her a sister. We’ve been through thick and thin. That’s how you gain experience and go through the ups and downs. We genuinely care for each other and we balance our lives on and off the court.”-Misty May

I couldn’t be more excited right now about these two amazing athletes and women winning the gold….I think I’m going to  watch the match on repeat for the rest of the evening!

Goodnight!

~Coach Salah

After not really having a home for the past week and a half, I’m happy to say that I am all moved in!! FINALLY!!! Saturday night me and my new roomie went out to celebrate….

It was a great eveni.g, we hot to meet lots of people and honestly, just cut loose. After working so hard all the time and not getting much sleep, having a night out just feels so good!

We are both super excites about making

lots of fun paleo meals….

Going to juiceland and indulgining in some health in a glass….

And just being super goofy and having lots of dance parties together!

This next year has lots of fun times, endless amounts of health and fitness, and even more laughs!!

~coach salah

I love Tuesdays, Why?  Every morning when I wake up and I know that I get to see another day I am so thankful for the opportunity to go out and make as much as a difference in the world as possible!  There are some days that I am a little grumpy, or not as nutty, but those days I don’t like the way I act.  So, I snap out of it!

Sunday evening when I got home from working, I had received an email saying that I was accepted as a FitFluential Ambassador! What is that you ask? Well….

“FitFluential is the perfect combination of fitness and influence.  We understand that fitness has many different definitions. It can mean walking, jogging or running. It can mean working out at the gym or to a fitness DVD at home. It can mean competing in bodybuilding and figure, or marathons and Triathalons. It can be Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, or Kickboxing, MMA and CrossFit. A fitness approach to food can be vegetarian, Paleo, Flexitarian, Pescetarian, High-Carb, Lo-Carb, Clean, High-Protein, Lo-Fat, Lo-Cal, Raw, or Vegan. It can mean any combination of the above and there is a new approach almost every week.

Influence is found in many places and can be cultivated, which is why our FitFluential Family is ever-evolving. Our hands-on approach to choosing influencers is paying off, especially when you consider these recent statistics:

By the numbers:

FitFluential Ambassadors and Influencers reach more than 100 million people each month. In just over a year, FitFluential has grown to more than 5,000 members with 600+ Ambassadors.

 FitFluential is about the Win-Win-Win.

• A Win is for the brand. Social media is a powerful set of tools by which we share a message. A Win for the brand is naturally tied to sales. You won’t hear many words like “buzz” or “viral” around here. We’re here to help you sell in a collaborative and natural manner. Period.
• A Win for our FitFluentials. These influencers have spent time and effort in creating unique and compelling content that draws in an engaged audience. That audience’s loyalty is valuable. Our goal is to bring them in to opportunities where they can earn additional income for their efforts.
• A Win for the consumer.  Consumers are the dedicated fitness enthusiasts who follow the blogs, watch the videos and read the tweets. It is our job to create content that they want to see, hear and read. Our goal is to educate them and get them excited about a brand’s products or services. We want to help enhance their fitness journey.

FitFluential is all about balance.

We deliver positive messages of health and wellness, but we also promote maintaining a healthy balance. Too often, people view fitness messaging as restrictive and harsh. We showcase how anyone can incorporate habits that will improve their overall health and well-being.

Fitness is all about fitting in to your LIFE. We’ll focus on four primary areas in everything we do: Eat, Sleep, Move, Enjoy.

• Eat- the fuel our body needs that tastes great and helps us reach our goals, whether it is weight loss, building muscle, or learning to eat a more sustainable diet
• Sleep – the importance of rest in getting fit cannot be disputed, and you must get enough sleep so your days are energized
• Move- from walking to bodybuilding, from Crossfit to yoga, let’s move and keep our heart and body healthy
• Enjoy- life must be enjoyed and there are times when a cookie or a cookout and a day off is just what you need.

By focusing on these four components of a healthy LIFE, we promote balance.

At FitFluential, we are passionate about fitness. If you are a brand hoping to connect with an audience that favors a healthy balance, you’ve come to the right place. If you are a fitness enthusiast hoping to share your story with a bigger audience, you too have come to the right place. Why wait? As we say in fitness, START NOW. We can’t wait to hear from you.” (http://fitfluential.com/about/)

I’m sure you are probably wondering, well, what does an Ambassador do?

What does a FitFluential Ambassador do?

As an Ambassador, you’ll have opportunities to work with our brand partners. That means when fitness brands want to partner with solid FitFluentials on product launches, social media campaigns or audition bloggers for long-term partnerships, our Ambassadors are the first to be invited. This doesn’t mean that every Ambassador gets to participate in every opportunity. The brand ultimately approves the teams chosen for that particular campaign.

At the end of the day, the goal of FitFluential is to successfully connect brands in the fitness space with highly influential fitness enthusiasts that are an ideal match for that brand. An ideal match is one where the FitFluential member (and their audience) is a perfect representation of the brand’s target market. With that said, we will not only choose our FitFluential Ambassadors based on audience reach and content quality, but also on attitude and quality of content. We all have diva moments, but it is important for our FitFluential Ambassadors to maintain integrity and professionalism when it comes to brand partnerships and representing the FitFluential community.

This is an opportunity of a lifetime, and I am so excited about being a part of such a wonderful community of fitness enthusiasts and influential people!  I am now more driven than ever to really go after my dreams with reckless abanadon!

A quote by Frank Tyger really stood out to me:

“Doing what you like is freedom.  Liking what you do is happiness.”

This really spoke volumes to me, because I don’t even just “like” what I do, I LOVE what I do!  When I’m exhausted and grumpy, seeing my clients immediately reminds me how lucky I am to be doing what I do and make a living off of it!

With that being said, because I love what I do, I have vowed to really start treating my body like the temple that it is.  I am trying to drink more veggie juices, foam roll, stretch, yoga, and just relax more so I can recover for the CrossFit Competition training faster, and feel 110% when i’m coaching so I can give my all to our clients!

Today I had a little something called a “Liver Cleanse”….Kale, Spinach, carrot, pear, and cucumber…YUM!!! It was without a doubt the bomb.com!

I’m writing this post from my android today as I’m sitting in the las Vegas airport waiting for my connecting flight. The excitement surrounding the crossfit games is unbelievable, and I’m sitting here on Twitter thinking how badly I wish I could be there this year, and how bad I want to compete there next year with my Woodward Crossfit team!

I have a long way to go still in my development as a crossfit athlete, but one of the main reasons why I love the sport of fitness so much is because I’m always challenged, there is always something I need to get better at, always another competitor that I need to catch up to, or outwork so I don’t get passed. This sport challenges my mental strength, and pushes my body to places I never thought it would go, or do (aka 1-arm db snatch that 70lb db).

The biggest reason why I’ve been able to accomplish as much as I have is due to not only hard work, but the support of my community. I love being a part of a community where laziness is not accepted, no excuses, but also a community filled with endless amounts of support and encouragement. I am a part of a family, and to me that means more than looking good, my family keeps me coming back everyday to train hard, they motivate and drive me to wake up at 4am and work till 9pm.

I don’t know exactly what I would be doing.now if I wasn’t coaching crossfit, but I do know that I don’t want to ever leave this amazing.community!

So, thank you, to my family, fellow coaches, clients and friends for being a part of my fitness journey and inspiring me EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

~coach salah

Ps. This is my new favorite kind bar….:)

A lot of times, when I get questions regarding eating paleo, I get asked if I get bored eating paleo, or if there needs to be some creative genius behind the foods I’m making.  Most of the time my response is no.  I don’t get bored, and most of the time I use other peoples recipes to make my meals instead of my own (even though often times I do like to think of myself as a genius).

It’s about this time in the week that I sit down and create my meal plans for the following week, so I wanted to share a few of my favorite paleo blog sites for ya’ll to use as a reference point for recipes!

Everyday Paleo

Rubies & Radishes

Nerd Fitness (Not a lot of recipes, but great tips on how to eat healthy at BBQ’s etc.)

Fast Paleo

Marks Daily Apple

Primal Palate

Nutty Kitchen

Whole 9

Paleo Blocks

PaleOMG

Nom Nom Paleo

I found a pancake recipe on PaleOMG, and HAVE to make it soon, maybe for a Sunday Brunch?

I’ll leave you with this:

“He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.”
Arabian Proverb 

~Coach Salah

This morning I woke up a little later than planned, which put a damper on me making it into the gym to do my planned Oly lifting with OK Weightlifting, then run some 4x800m repeats, and mobility/core work after. Even though I’m not able to make it in to the gym, I have no excuse because of all the resources that are at my fingertips, such as thetravelingwod.com.  There is an endless library of at home workouts that you can do if you can’t afford a gym membership, or can’t make it in to the gym, or if you are on the road!  All you have to do is go to the Traveling WOD tab and pick your poison!  I have done several of them because my schedule is so sporadic that at times I have to do something before I go coach at 5:30am, or when I get off work around 9pm.

Today’s WOD is something I have definitely written down for future reference:

Run a 5k

Every 1 minute stop and do 10 burpees, and continue to do so till you finish the 5k

YIKES!!!  Haha this will be a good one!

Yesterday’s WOD was a chipper workout that I will be completing this morning before heading out to the lake with the other coaches:

“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.”

~Satchel Paige~

 This quote sums up the point of this post….no excuses, just find an alternative! Go achieve your goals, make your dreams turn into reality!  Anything worth having will never be easy, but it will always be worth it!

Yesterday, I put in an Advocare order for their Herbal Cleanse, some more Spark, catalyst, and my favorite Nighttime Recovery. My eating schedule, the foods I’ve been eating (and not eating) has been thrown off due to my wisdom teeth surgery, then playing catch up with work and getting things ready for some new programs about to be offered at Woodward CrossFit.  Over the course of the past 2 weeks, I have had 4 migraines, and several really bad headaches. Wednesday, I had a headache so bad that I was sick to my stomach for an hour+ and had to go home early from work.  Since I am not exactly sure what has brought on all the sleepiness and migraines, a cleanse is in order.  Better to wash the slate nice and clean and start fresh!  

Some benefits of cleansing: 

Blood: Healthy blood circulation is crucial to removing toxins from the body. That is because the blood transports toxins to other organs for proper elimination. 

Bowel: The bowel (or colon) disposes of toxins from the digestive system and the liver, so cleansing the colon helps clear the way for other organs to function properly and help purge the body of unwanted toxins.

Skin: When you sweat, your perspiration transports wastes and toxins out of the body through the pores in the skin. Because of its large surface area, the skin actually disposes of more waste (by sweating) than the kidneys and colon combined.

Kidneys: The kidneys remove waste products from the blood, eliminate toxic substances in the urine, and receive water-soluble toxins from the liver for processing. They filter voluminous amounts of blood each day and in doing so maintain the body’s water balance and excrete toxins and excess fluid through the bladder.

The Lymphatic System: The lymphatic system transports wastes and toxins from cells and the circulatory system to each of organs involved in the elimination of toxins from the body. This system of vessels carries immune cells in a network that follows the body’s bloodstream. 

Lungs: Your lungs purge toxins from the body each time you exhale. Deep breathing also increases the flow of lymph, which further helps to eliminate toxins. 

Liver: The liver chemically converts destructive toxins into less harmful substances that the colon and kidneys can eliminate. 

Cleansing is a great way to help raise energy levels and feel as good as possible!  I will be starting my cleanse next Monday, June 25 and will go 10 days, then continue for 14 Days after by using MNS Max 3 for 14 days to help get my habits back in order.  NO MORE MIGRAINES!  I would love for as many people as possible to join me!  You have all week to let me know you are interested (email: beatyourbest.training@gmail.com, tweet me @SalahSays OR on Facebook!).  If you already know you want to take part in this cleanse challenge or the FULL 24-Day Challenge you can order here, or email me and I’ll get you all set up for success!  

I couldn’t be more excited about this step!  During the cleanse I will only be eating organic, and grass fed meats, LOTS Of veggies, raw nuts, little fruits, and NO dairy, or grains/gluten (not like I can really have either of those anyway).  I am anemic so I will be taking in an iron supplement as well, along with my normal Fish Oil!  

My Quote for the week….My focus is BE THE BEST ME that I can be!

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.”

~Tim Duncan~