Newsletter #11, June-July 2020
AS ALWAYS, IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING IN THIS NEWSLETTER, OR WANT MORE INFO,
PLEASE TALK TO ANY COACH, OR EMAIl admin@feast-fitness.com.
COMMUNITY UPDATE
WELCOME BACK!
It’s been awesome to be able to see everyone live and in person! We can’t tell you how much we appreciated your support during the virus shutdown, and we hope that we were a support to you as well during quarantine. Now that we’re back in the gym, we’ve got a few announcements relating to reopening.
Phase IV protocols
We have established protocols to keep our community as safe as possible as we cautiously reopen, but we need everyone’s help:
Wear a mask when you are in the gym, except when maintaining a healthy state requires you not to.
Stay home if you suspect you are sick or suspect you may have been exposed to someone who is.
Maintain six feet of distance from others.
Clean your area and equipment after class.
If you’ve traveled away from Chicago, comply with any quarantine requirements when you return.
Reserve your class and open gym times through Zen.
Thank you for doing all you can to keep the community healthy!
since reservations are required, we’ve restarted all Memberships
Now that we can accommodate all members in the gym under Phase IV protocols, we’ve restarted all memberships so that everyone can reserve classes in Zen. Please reach out to us if you want to go back on hold for any reason, and we’ll take care of it.
SCHEDULE CHANGES: STAY UP TO DATE BY FOLLOWING FEAST ON INSTAGRAM
We continue to make schedule changes based on member feedback, class reservations, and our ability to expand our offerings. Please make sure to follow @feast_fitness on Instagram and check in regularly for schedule changes.
The latest:
The back lot is always available for open gym or tackling the WOD on your own except when we are running our kids classes M-W-F from 2pm-4pm. Feel free to grab the equipment you need and head out back and get to work.
For now, we won’t be running classes other than our kids classes in the back lot.
We’ve replaced 6:30pm Thursday Olympic Weightlifting with 6:45pm Yoga with Knuf. Come get flexy!
PLEASE HELP US GROW
We can now begin accommodating new members who want to join Feast. If you’ve got friends or family who you think would benefit from joining Feast, or who have been unable to return to their pre-quarantine gym, please put them in touch with Tony ( tony@feast-fitness.com ) to schedule a time to come by the gym and check us out.
Now’s a great time to join. We’re running a two-week free trial for experienced functional fitness athletes, and folks who aren’t experienced are welcome to drop in for a free class.
again, THANK YOU
The last few months have definitely been a challenge to us as a small business, but the generosity of our members who were able to continue paying their memberships has made all the difference. Thanks to you, we were able to keep all of our coaches employed during quarantine in service of our community. While we were unable to be in the gym, our coaches:
Coached Zoom classes
Disassembled, cleaned, and rebuilt all barbells, assault bikes, and rowers
Rehung the barbell racks and repainted the back wall and area around the peg board
Deep cleaned all areas of the gym, and the GHDs, plates, dumbbells, kettlebells, and rig
Re-caulked all bathrooms
Set up the outdoor workout area
Assembled the new wall ball overflow shelving, rehung the foam rollers, moved the founder’s board, and reorganized gym storage
So, again, thank you for helping us through this time, and keeping our team working for you!
MEET
COACH COLE!
Feast is happy and fortunate to welcome COle Simon to our coaching staff. following a career in theatre, film, and photography, Cole earned his CF level 1 and ACE PT Cert, and has been coaching in chicago for two years.
From cole:
“I have realized that we have been given, by evolution, the capacity to be the superheroes that captured our imaginations in our childhood. In my late twenties, the methodology of fitness and CrossFit helped me to realize that I cannot only lift that weight, but I am designed to. Not only could I run fast, but I am designed to. Not only could I handle life's stress, but I am designed to.
“For me, training as a team across broad time and modal domains necessitates and stimulates growth physically, mentally, and emotionally. In my journey as an athlete and as a coach, I consider myself incredibly lucky to find a team in the coaches at Feast Fitness.”
Cole coaches the morning and noon classes MWf, so drop in and say hello!
we’re no longer an affiliate. But we’re still feast.
If you haven’t heard by now, in response to the comments and actions of Greg Glassman, the owner of CrossFit, we decided to disaffiliate. What does that mean for Feast? We can no longer use the word “CrossFit” to market ourselves or describe what we do, so it will be harder for people using that search term to find us on the internet, and we will have to use other descriptive terms to explain what we do. To that end, we’ve changed our branding to sum up what we strive to do: help people “Get Fit For Life.” Check out our updated website (still a work in progress), and let us know if you have comments or suggestions on our messaging.
CrossFit recently announced that Glassman would sell CrossFit to Eric Rozen, a tech entrepreneur, experienced CrossFitter, and co-owner of a CrossFit affiliate in Boulder, CO. We’ll continue to monitor what happens with CrossFit, but for now we’ve decided to stand on our own as Feast Fitness + Nutrition.
FEAST & ANTI-RACISM
Our mission from our founding as been to support the lifelong health + happiness of our community. It is unacceptable that institutional racism has prevented the Black members of our community from having the same access to lifelong health + happiness. To be true to our mission, we need to do our part to address this.
To date, we have collaborated with Feast member Dr. Thara Nagarajan to host two Zoom calls with members of Feast—one providing some historical context of racism in the U.S., and one discussing possible actions each of us can take to begin to actively combat racism.
We’re actively working on ways Feast as a business can support anti-racism. Although we’re still at the start of this process, we are:
Researching whether there are Black-owned suppliers we can use.
We have shifted our t-shirt supplier to a Black-owned business in North Lawndale that trains neighborhood youth to become silk screeners.
We are searching for a Black-owned supplier of hand sanitizer—please let us know if you know of one.
Looking for fitness entrepreneur(s) in North Lawndale or surrounding communities who are interested in partnering with Feast to start or grow their businesses. Again, please let us know if you know anyone.
Seeking ways to combine our fitness with anti-racism efforts, such as encouraging members to participate on the Feast team in the March for Movement Virtual 5K, https://runsignup.com/Race/IL/YourTown/MarchforMovement5kRunWalk?raceRefCode=Y8yecfhu, which we’ll program in class on Wednesday, July 15. We’ll continue to look for future events like this one that allow us to use our fitness to help.
And Greg wanted to make sure you knew that two of his favorite products—NoBull shoes and Uncle Nearest bourbon—are Black-owned business. So if like Greg you like CrossFit and whiskey, those are two businesses that are easy to support.
Please contact Greg (greg@feast-fitness.com) if you’re interested in getting more involved in anti-racism at Feast, or if you have other ideas as to how we can be active in these efforts.
NUTRITION UPDATE
HEALTHY HABITs CHECK IN
At Feast we focus on healthy habits as the core of our group nutrition program, because we know that (a) adopting the right habits is the most sustainable approach to nutrition, and (b) nutrition is even more important than exercise to your health. We talked to Feast and Beyond the Box Nutrition coach Terri Hartman about one of the Feast healthy habits, setting up our environment for success. She has some great advice:
Plan. For example, if you are going to eat out, take a look at the menu before you head out, and make a decision on what you want to eat and drink. Stick to that plan.
Make your new habit easy. If you want to eat more veggies, then buy them, and have them available to you all the time. Prep raw veggies for snacks and bag them up right away.
Remove temptations. If you are trying to reduce added sugars or processed foods (and we hope you are!), then get them our of your pantry.
Surround yourself with the people who support your new goals.
Within the next month, we’ll be re-launching Feast Healthy Habits with an updated version of our group nutrition program. Be on the lookout for more details!
HEALTHY HABITS WORK!
Take it from Feast member Michelle Hughes, who decided to focus on her nutrition during the shutdown.
Michelle had been coming to Feast three times a week. She took advantage of members’ access to the InBody machine to test her body composition, and, armed with that knowledge, she decided to clean up her eating “a little bit.”
She focused on developing good habits, starting with small and specific goals like:
drinking half her body weight in ounces of water and
aiming to get 35% of her calories from protein
After implementing those habits, she added intermittent fasting, which is a great way for some people to give their bodies a rest and manage caloric intake.
One thing that helped Michelle adopt changes was “not trying to do everything at once.” Michelle says she enjoyed the whole process and felt great at every stage. She reports that the positivity of the Feast community, including the fist bumps on SugarWOD, really helped to keep her motivated. She also worked hard while she was training in quarantine to get her first pull up, which she’s been hitting for reps since she returned to the gym.
Way to go Michelle—you are an inspiration!
FITNESS UPDATE
Feast Youth Summer Program starts now!
If you haven't signed your kids up for Feast’s Youth Summer Program yet, what are you waiting for? We’re offering:
Full 8-Week Session (July 6th-August 31)
Two 4-Week Sessions
July 6 - Aug 2
Aug 3 - Aug 31
Classes are M-W-F from 2pm - 3pm for the kids (6-10 year olds) and from 3pm - 4pm for the teens (11-14 year olds).
Classes will be held in the back lot and will focus on running and jumping, and learning gymnastics and weightlifting skills.
This is the perfect program for your kid if you want to get him or her moving and having some fun! If you have any more questions reach out to Coach Welmé at Welme@feast-fitness.com.
STUDENT SUMMER MEMBERSHIPS
We are again offering our discounted Student Summer Membership for high school and college students. Contact Tony at tony@feast-fitness.com for details.
MEET THE FEASTER: TAREG QTAMI
Nickname - T or Tee
Best Moment at Feast So Far - Saturday morning workouts
Favorite Weightlifting Movement - Push press or strict press
Least Favorite Movement - Overhead squat
What You Look for in a Workout Partner - A team player
How You Like Your Eggs - I don’t like eggs!
Favorite Healthy Snack Option - Veggies
Best Advice You’ve Been Given - Don’t give up
Blerta McNally June 3 ***** Matt Wilbur July 2
Marlin Ness June 4 ***** Kelly Bourquin July 3
Cole Robbins June 8 ***** Peter Mosio July 3
Brad Hajner June 13
Cici Lee June 15 ***** Jose Salinas July 13
Bina Shetty June 17 ***** Lauren Buoscio July 20
Terri Hartman June 19 ***** Sarah Reed July 20
Andrew Hemmerlein June 22
Sheena Lawrick June 22 ***** Liza Flemming July 24
Welme LeCordeur June 23 ***** Jorge Cabrera July 25
Scott Thompson June 23***** JR Green July 31
Becks Zirlin June 28 ***** Shantanu Sonparote July 31
Sandy Helquist June 30
Greg Robbins
Feast Fitness + Nutrition
E. greg@feast-fitness.com
P. 773-234-4226