Category Archives: Motivation

Adventures With Food!

Posted on by
4

Post courtesy of Renegade Dietitian Alex Black.  Checkout the Daily Challenge below!

Helen Keller once said: “life is either a daring adventure, or nothing “, and I’d have to say I agree with her. If you think about it, everyday presents a new opportunity to learn something new or for something completely awesome to happen. And of course we always have the opportunity to make our own adventures. As part of the Renegade Challenge, we’ll be learning and trying all sorts of new things over the next month on our journey to become better athletes and better people.

So if we think about life as an adventure, shouldn’t we think about the food we eat everyday the same way? Some already do. Over the past ten years the food industry has gotten pretty creative about what they offer. They try lots of new stuff, like cereals that look like cookies, bagel “stix” prefilled with cream cheese, pink milk, white chocolate flavored peanut butter, purple ketchup… I could go on. If you’ve ever walked down the snack aisle of a supermarket, you know what I mean. Food companies spend millions of dollars coming up with creative new “food” items. But when you start eating more healthy unprocessed foods and making meals and snacks yourself, it can get a little more difficult to be creative. How often do you pack the same sandwich for lunch? Make the same breakfast for a month straight? Eat the same post workout snack every day? It’s so easy to fall into a food rut. But that gets boring. And when your diet becomes boring, it’s all to easy to start letting the food companies be creative for you. Enter the nutrition bar with 19 ingredients and the TV dinners that don’t taste nearly as awesome as home cooked meals.

But today’s challenge is about BREAKING FREE! Get out of the food rut. Do something different with food. It doesn’t matter if you try a food you’ve never tried before, eat a food you eat all the time in a different way, make something from scratch that you normally make with packaged ingredients, buy something completely weird and try it out, or just eat a food you used to eat all the time and haven’t had since you were a kid. Just do something adventurous! And of course, tell us how it went in the comments.

Daily Challenge 4/26:

Eat Something Adventurous!!!  Share your experience!

And to help get your creative juices flowing, this week I am sharing the recipe that inspired this post: chocolate pudding made with avocados. Because who would have thought you could make pudding with an avocado?! But it’s delicious! And it’s pretty rich so a few bites will satisfy that sweet/chocolate craving with some healthy fats and less sugar than regular pudding.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding (Courtesy of Kelly Alice)

Ingredients

2 small hass avocados

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¼ cup honey

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup almond milk (optional)

Just mix it all in a food processor or blender until smooth and enjoy! If you don’t have a food processor, you can just mix it all up in a mixing bowl with a potato masher. It may come out a little lumpier but it’ll also make clean up a little easier.

What Does It Take To Be A Renegade?

Posted on by
3

Be A Renegade Challenge

During the month of May we will be competing in the first of many challenges to truly be renegades in life and sport.  Rather than take the easy road and go with the typical norms of society we will hold each other to higher standers and work to be better people and better athletes.  To often we get lazy and take for granted the opportunities we have to make ourselves and others the people we want to be.  The Be A Renegade Challenge is our opportunity to make a change and fight for our true potential.

This week will be a trial week to see who wants to commit to the challenge for the month of May.  Every day there will be a challenge posted on the blog for you to complete and then share your experiences through the comments.  If you’re interested in competing for the Renegade Challenge Cup check out the Be A Renegade Challenge page and start tracking your progress toward becoming a Renegade!

If you would like to become an official challenger for the Renegade Challenge Cup let us know in the comments section of this post.  We’ll gladly add you to the Be A Renegade Challenge page.  

If you want to just check out how the form and challenge works, select Renegade Wannabe under the Name drop down and fill out the form.

4/23 Daily Challenge

Find a New Sport!  

Google a sport you’ve been thinking of trying.  Learn more about it.  Then come up with a plan to give it a try.  Comment with what you learned and how you plan on trying your new sport!  

Sport Life

Posted on by
2

Sport Life

By Patrick Larcom

As the oldest of six children in a military family, I have lived in nine states and Germany, adjusting to a new place and people every few years.  Each home posed new challenges, from finding the bus stop to making new friends.  As the world around me constantly changed, it would have been easy to retreat indoors and invest my energy in portable, consistent activities: me, myself, the computer, and I.  Luckily, my parents had a knack for seeing the world through sports and passed that vision on to me.

Spacious fields were for playing soccer, frozen ponds were for playing hockey, and tall mountains were for skiing, especially in the Alps.  Playing three sports in high school forced me to manage my time so that I could excel academically and athletically.  Without sports, I would not have fond memories of my youth, made friends around the world, or done so well in school.  Reflecting beyond my childhood, I realize that sports form my backbone, supporting me as an Army Brat, a student, an engineer, and a coach. Rowing, most of all, has given me an opportunity to learn, follow, lead, make friends, stay healthy, be competitive, and excel in life.

Looking outward, Sport is glue that can hold society and people together.  Sport is a way for two nations to battle for glory.  It allows both sides to push each other to the limit and walk away with respect.  Sport unifies the young and the old whether it’s cheering for a favorite team or competing at any age.

So why are sports a part of our everyday life?  How have traditions, rivalries, and national pastimes survived the test of time? People play sports because they’re fun.  Sports are fun because every participant is given a chance to compete.  It’s not the thrill of the outcome or the opponent that matters.  People enjoy competing because they’re given an opportunity to test themselves and their abilities in order to experience the thrill of an improvement toward a greater cause.  Competition can be both individual and team oriented.   Sport incorporates competition into our daily lives and allows us to have some fun and experience the journey.

Life needs passion and I believe it’s found in the relationships and experiences we build with others through sport.  I know that I’ve found a purpose and passion in life through sports, rowing, and coaching.  I believe others find that same passion every time they sit down to watch their home team or get out and throw a ball with their kids.  Sport teaches us leadership and competitive spirit.  A love for sport allows us to move to new places and make new friends.  Sports bring focus, responsibility, and time management to developing youth. I have not rowed on the national team, but I still have a love and passion for sport.  Sport brings that fun and passion to everyone’s lives and let’s us live life to the fullest.

Renegade Rowing For All!

Posted on by
Reply

Renegade Rowing is designed for athletes of all levels and backgrounds.  Whether you are a junior girl training for the varsity crew team or an elite level triathlete, Renegade Rowing can be scaled accordingly to push your boundaries, intensity level, and capacity to do work.  We focus on learning to move well first and then challenge each other through competition to reach our true potential.  Here’s a great example of how Renegade Rowing can be scaled for any athlete willing to push themselves harder while having fun!

Functional Movements Renegade Rowing Style

Posted on by
Reply

What is a Functional Movement?

Functional movements are movements that mimic motor recruitment patterns found in everyday life.  They tend to be compound movements involving multiple joints.  For regular people that means sitting and standing or picking something up off the ground, movements also known as squatting or deadlifting.  At Renegade Rowing we learn, train, and continually develop functional movements because they develop the strength and power needed in the sport of rowing and life, but also because it would be impossible to live and row without them.

The simple task of getting on and off the water everyday is an easy way to see where functional movements can come into play in the world of Renegade Rowing.  In order to put the boat in the water and get in, a rower must be able to shoulder press, deadlift, and squat.  If you’ve never rowed before you might be able to figure out how to get the boat in the water and then get in it with out these functional movements, but you probably won’t be rowing long if you do.  Either you’ll get injured or you won’t be rowing period having dropped a $30k piece of equipment on the dock to break it in half.

Every Renegade Rower will develop a competency in the Deadlift, Squat, and Shoulder Press.  These lifts will form the foundation of our strength programming and give us the ability to develop more complex functional movements, like the Olympic Lifts.  If we’re lucky we might even develop the best functional movement of all…..

The Row –