Newsletter #19 April 2022-August 2022
COMMUNITY UPDATE
murph 2022
Our members inspired and impressed on May 28. Over 70 athletes completed MURPH, and Feast donated over $1000 from entry fees and t-shirt sales to Americares’ to provide medicine and supplies for those in Ukraine whose lives have been devastated by war. We are so proud that the Feast Fam showed up to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, and grateful for the contributions to those living through war right now.
tpan/CHicago House fundraiser
On June 4 Feast hosted the 3rd annual Lift-a-thon to benefit TPAN (Test Positive Aware Network) and Chicago House (an organization empowering those living with or vulnerable to HIV/AIDS). Over 40 Feast members and friends from the community came together to do a difficult partner WOD and then celebrate with hotdogs donated by Byron's and beer donated by Forbidden Root, Metropolitan, and 4 Hands. Member Lasagna Grande performed a show-stopping drag number complete with thrusters in heels and a drop to splits from the pull up bar. Thanks to Andy Boyer for organizing this event, and to our supportive and generous community—the event raised $1685 for these two charities.
wine tasting with feast friends
Members of our Feast crew embarked on an epic journey recently...to the vineyards of Michigan! On July 17th, 12 wine lovers headed out on a rented shuttle/party bus and visited 3 wineries: Round Barn Estate, Tabor Hill & Lemon Creek.
Each winery hosted live music and tasting trays. The weather held out for them until about 4 pm when it started to downpour, but thankfully they were under a large tent. The ride back to the gym was full of music, laughter, conversation and a little more wine. We can't wait to visit the wineries of Michigan again next year! Thanks so much to Angela Patterson for organizing the inaugural Feast Wine Tasting!
FITNESS UPDATE
val defends her title!
After placing first in this year’s Open and Semi-Finals, Feast member Val Cohen defended her title as the Fittest Woman on Earth in the Women’s Lower Extremity Adaptive Division at the 2022 Crossfit Games in Madison, WI! She won six out of eight events and finished second in the other two. We are so proud of Val and her incredibly hard work to overcome multiple physical challenges and prepare for the Games, and we’re so excited that she was able to compete at such a high level again. A huge thank you to the Feast community for supporting Val, including everyone who generously donated money, bid on auction items, and participated in the member competition to defray Val’s and PJ’s expenses. Congratulations to the Beast from Feast, and to her (and our) amazing Coach PJ!
IN-HOUSE COmpetition
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the first-ever Feast In-House Competition! We know it’s not easy to overcome those competition jitters, and we were so impressed with everyone’s grit and effort. A special shout out to Britta Dahlberg and Connor Scherer, who took the Rx title, and Angela Patterson and Javier Valor, who won the scaled division. Thanks to Feast Member Erin Short for providing free injury screens, Stretch Lab (opening in Lincoln Square in September) for coming to stretch all members, and congratulations Liza Lopez for winning the raffle! And a huge thanks to Coach PJ and Carol for organizing the competition and writing the workouts, and to our generous members, who helped us raise $4000 through the comp, raffle, auction, and donations to help Val fund her trip to the Games!
OUR NEW CYCLE, VIGOR is here…
The definition of Vigor is physical strength and good health. We are shifting our focus from highly technical lifts to building strength, speed, and stability.
Since we will be pushing it hard this cycle, we’ve added in some recovery protocols at the end of class. Properly cooling down and recovering is essential to build strength as well as to stay injury free!
The schedule for each week this cycle we be:
Monday: Deadlifts
Tuesday: Kipping gymnastics work
Wednesday: Endurance
Thursday: Push Press + Front Squats
Friday: Unilateral Strength + Sprint Work
Saturday:
- CrossFit team workout
- Oly overhead squat and power clean
Sunday:
- CrossFit rest day
- Endurance
- Gymnastics strict pulling + pushing
REMINDER: GYMNASTICS, ENDURANCE, YOGA, AND OLY SCHEDULE
Endurance: Sunday at 9:00am
Gymnastics: Sunday at 11:00am
Yoga: Thursday at 6:45pm
Oly: Saturday at 10:00am and normal class times on Thursday
NUTRITION UPDATE
NUTRITION CHALLENGES!
At Feast, we recognize that nutrition is paramount to success in the gym as well as essential for leading a happy and healthy life. That’s why we include group nutrition programming with every membership.
In response to comments on our nutrition programming, and requests from members, this June we pivoted our group nutrition programming to remain habit-based, but include a “challenge” component. These are not your typical challenges focused around a competitive weight loss goal, or an unsustainable nutrition approach. Instead, we are challenging our members to adopt sustainable habits that can persist after the challenge is over.
The three inaugural challenges were designed to match up with three different, broad goals.
Our LEAN challenge, led by Coach Terri, focused on preserving lean muscle mass and a healthy body fat percentage by eating more whole foods and fewer processed ingredients.
Our LIFE group, led by Coach Lisa, expanded our members’ mindset around nutrition for life. We focused on healthy eating habits for longevity and sustainability for a better quality of life.
Our STRONG group, led by Coach Connor, looked to improve the overall strength and lean muscle mass of its participants. The emphasis was additional strength work in the gym, but also eating more to support muscle growth.
About 40 members participated in one of the three groups. Everyone learned a lot and many experienced significant changes. For instance, Connor Kaminski, who chose the strength group, described his experience as follows: “Prior to the strength 50 day challenge I was going through the motions in the gym coming in and checking off a box. Didn’t have a goal, was just coming in to workout. The challenge allowed me to focus on 1 thing—strength. I set a a goal for myself that I thought was achievable in a short amount of time and worked toward it. Although the goal isn’t my end goal, I realized it’s more important to have A goal than it is to THE goal. The challenge was geared towards lifting heavier weight and I learned how to eat for strength. I can honestly say I was not eating nearly as much as I should be if my goal is to lift for strength. Before the challenge I didn’t realize how small changes in my diet—eating more food but good food—would improve my strength.”
The next phase of our group nutrition will be providing challenge participants with a post-challenge approach to nutrition. In a couple of months, we’ll report on that, and launch our next group of nutrition challenges. So if you think you might be interested, chat with Terri, Lisa, or Connor, or just stay tuned and we’ll announce more info before class.
TRY THIS DELICIOUS AND HEALTHY summer RECIPE!
Watermelon and Feta Salad
Ingredients:
Watermelon, cut in bite -sized cubes
Feta cheese, crumbled or cut into very small pieces (if a block)
Fresh mint, julienned
Lime juice
Salt
Instructions:
Arrange watermelon on platter.
Top with feta.
Sprinkle with salt and lime juice.
Meet the Feaster: Lauren Buoscio!
Nickname: Boosh
Member Since: Day 1, literally from the ground floor
Normal Class Time: 6:30am
CrossFit Movement You Love: Snatch; Hate: Overhead Squat
Spirit Animal: No Drama Llama
Emoji You Relate to the Most: 😑
Weightlifting, Gymnastics, or Cardio: Weightlifting (I have little legs.)
Best Moment at Feast So Far: Beating Huong in the Open and then immediately announcing my retirement from doing the Open.
April
Cody Jarrett * Amy Benson * Andy Mosio * Ryan Ennis * Kyle Bordner * Brian Fitzpatrick * Michael Kocourek * Lydia Burns * John Reynolds * Alex Schildgen * Lisa Davidson * Maura Robbins * George Andrews * Nate Knappen * Mariel Wilson * Melanie Pozdol * Rob Schildgen * Alexa Chavez * Torry Bennett-Davis * Emma Rosenthal
May
PJ Mora * Daniel Short * Scott Endress * Julie O’Keeffe * Samantha Bork * Ilan Grinberg * Mitzi Baum * Aiden Kremel * Carmen Kassinger * Emma Falk * Matt Robertson * Andrew "Sausage" Kucharski * Tony Mattar * Mai McKeon
June
John Koltse * Jeanne Lamar * Cecilia Lee * Mickey O’Sullivan * Madhav Suresh * Terri Hartman * Dan Machalinski * Molly Tongelidis * Tony Villadavis * Fran Schnieder * Kyle Daley * Sandy Helquist
July
James Nguyen * Alison Damkroger * José Salinas * Nate Abraham * Lauren “Boosh” Buoscio * Jorge Cabrera * Sam Grobart * Fadi Abuelroos * John Owens * JR Greene
August
Codi Livingston * Servia Rindfleish * Joshua Braun * Stephen Erbeck * Michelle Hughes * Vonda Paul * Daniel Haney * Alex Chudler * Nicole Arnold * Jennifer McGeehan * Greg Robbins * Lizzie McDermott