For time:
12 ring handstand push-ups
225-lb. back squats, 15 reps
20 burpees
9 ring handstand push-ups
205-lb. front squats, 18 reps
20 burpees
6 ring handstand push-ups
185-lb. overhead squats, 21 reps
20 burpees
On Saturday evening I was flipping through Facebook when a shaved-headed woman in a hospital gown appeared on my screen. I went to high school with the woman, she has a son, and at the age of 33 she is years into a battle with cancer. The thought of it makes my eyes water and my stomach churn.
I do CrossFit for my health – now and long into the future – and because I genuinely believe it will help ward off disease, such as cancer. I believe that doing constantly varied, functional movements, executed at high intensity and eating meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar is like my 401K plan for health. I do CrossFit because I want to be healthy for myself, my kids, and my family. As a family, we put hundreds of hours into this effort for eachother. I know that the hours are worth it – but, if I were to get cancer, I’d be really pissed.
It turns out; however, that one specific piece of Coach Gassman’s recommendation may be just the thing to decrease the possibility of getting cancer even further – don’t eat sugar.
As a society, we’ve been trained to connect our sugar consumption with weight gain and guilt, but what if we started to connect it with cancer? Would that motivate us to a new level?
Thomas Seyfried, a Boston College doctorate in genetics and biochemistry, believes that cancer is a metabolic diseases – one that is driven by the excessive consumption of sugar and carbohydrates. “What sugar will do is cause imbalances in metabolic hormones leading to systemic inflammation, and it’s the systemic inflammation that is linked to higher risk for cancer.”
In the CrossFit Journal article, Cancer, Carbs, and Controversy, author Brittney Saline reviews the research between sugar consumption and cancer and discusses new treatment methods for those individuals suffering from various cancers. Read this article!
Sometimes things happen for a reason. Seeing that photo was a good reminder that shit can get real, real fast. Reading Saline’s article was a good reminder that sugar sucks, it always sucks, it sucked when I was in high school, and it still sucks now.