COMMUNITY UPDATE

“BRING A FRIEND WEEK” IS BACK STARTING SATURDAY OCTOBER 14 . . . AND Give $100 off, get $100 off is NOW year-Round!

Our next Bring a Friend Week starts Saturday, October 14. During that week, your friend will work out for free with other friends who are also new to CrossFit, or new to Feast, and the workouts will of course be designed to be easily modified for all levels. And of course, you can give your friend $100 off their first month membership, and take $100 your next month’s membership, when you refer them through Bring a Friend Week. But we’ve also decided to extend that offer to be year-round! So whenever you refer someone and they sign up, you’ll get $100 your next month’s membership, and the person you referred will get $100 of their first month’s membership. Workout with friends, help your friends save money and get fit, save some money yourself—what could be better!

REGISTERing AND SIGNing IN FOR CLASS helps us make sure we’ve got enough coaches for you (plus, there’s committed club).

Have you noticed the gym getting busier?! We’ve seen a couple really big classes (20+ people!) in the last few weeks. If everyone would please remember to register for class a day early, we can know when we’ve got a big class, and assign a second coach. Even if you can’t register for class that far ahead of time, please remember to sign in for class—we can track attendance over time, and if a class regularly has a lot of people in attendance, we’ll look to assign a second coach regularly to be at that class.

And don’t forget—every sign in gets you one class closer to the 16 you need to be in Committed Club each month. Congrats to our last three committed club winners: Andy Boyer (August), Kristy Bowman (July), and Maggie Easley (June).

HOLD POLICY

Over the summer, we received quite a few questions about our policy for putting memberships on hold. So we’re publishing here our hold policy so that everyone is clear about how holds work at Feast:

Holds are for absences of 10 or more days due to business travel, vacation, family obligations, or injury.
To put a hold in place, send an e-mail requesting the hold to Connor@feast-fitness.com or info@feast-fitness.com no less than three business days before you want that hold to take effect.
So long as you give the required notice, we’ll put the scheduled hold on your membership, your current membership will be extended for the number of days of the hold, and your next membership payment due date will also be extended by that same number of days. (If you pay via Zelle, please revise your payment date accordingly.)
Unless we receive an extension request from you at least 3 business days before the end of your hold period, we’ll assume that you are coming off hold, and we’ll restart your membership and payments accordingly.

If you’ve got questions or comments about the hold policy, please let Connor or Greg know.

YOU CAN NOW PAY FOR YOUR FEAST MEMBERSHIP WITH PRE-TAX DOLLARS!

Your Feast membership payments are eligible for reimbursement through HSA/FSA funds, saving you an average of 30% off!

To qualify, you simply need to follow this link to the TrueMed site. If you’re able to state that you believe that CrossFit will help you prevent or reverse certain chronic conditions, TrueMed will charge you a one-time fee of $30 and then send you a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN). You’ll then submit your future Feast invoices and LMN to your HSA/FSA provider for reimbursement of your membership fees paid. TrueMed will send instructions to get reimbursed and their customer support team will be available to assist. If for some reason you’re not approved by TrueMed, they won’t charge you the $30 one-time fee.

As of October 2nd, 18 Feast members have taken advantage of this opportunity and are saving an estimated $70/month on their memberships!

A GOOD DUDE RUNNING FOR A GREAT CAUSE

Feast member Michael Zubeck will be running the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 8, to raise money for Chicago Run, http://www.chicagorun.org. According to their website, Chicago Run “is a nonprofit organization that provides young people from Pre-K through high school with inclusive running and physical activity programs. We empower young people with equitable access to physical activity and use running as a catalyst to transform lives. Through the power of sport, we build resilience to stress and trauma and develop social and emotional skills. We primarily focus programming in under-resourced communities with limited access to physical activity and play.” Similar to past fundraisers, Zubi will do a burpee for every dollar donated by Feast members.

You can donate to Zubi’s fundraising page through this link: Zubeck’s Fundraising Page.

AND speaking of A GREAT CAUSE

Please bring in new or gently used (and clean!) winter coats, hats, gloves, and scarves and leave them in the bins near the front desk. We’re collecting them at the request of Mutual Aid Support for Migrant Families, which will distribute them to the more than 100 migrant families staying at the 19th Police Precinct while they await shelter placement, as well as migrant families at nearby temporary shelters.

We’ve already donated more than $7,000 to good causes this year! Thanks for all of your generosity so far, and let’s keep it going!!

there’s still time to sign up for the idaho trident

Former Feast Coach and current McCall, Idaho resident Ryan Heywood is once again hosting an amazing hiking adventure in the backcountry around McCall. He’s guiding two trips next year:

IHT-Adventurer is June 20-24, 2024, and is for the more experienced hiker and endurance athlete who wants to test themselves in the mountains.
IHT-Traveller is July 25-29, 2024, and is for the beginner hiker or athlete who wants to hike at a more relaxed pace while enjoying the beauty of their surroundings.

Just e-mail rdh.endurance.training@gmail.com for more details and to sign up!

FITNESS UPDATE

we rumbled!

Thanks to all the Feast Members who competed, judged, and showed up to cheer at the Rumble on Ravenswood. Thanks to you, we were able to put on an awesome event for the CrossFit community. 78 athletes competed in teams of 3 in Rx and Scaled divisions, and with judges, coaches, supporters, and spectators, we had over 150 people in the gym.

Special thanks to Feast member Brad VandenBerg for designing our t-shirts, Magnolia Screen Print for printing them, and Michael Lim for all the great photos of the event.

And if you see Coach Anna around the gym, congratulate her on running an amazing competition!

CONGRATS TO VAL on her three-peat AS GAMES CHAMPION

Congrats to our very own Val Cohen who three-peated as the worlds fittest lower extremity female at the CrossFit Games. And thanks again to all of our members who participated in the thROWdown and the silent auction to raise money to get her there. We’re so impressed with your dedication and hard work, Val!

current PROGRAMMING CYCLE: grind

We hope you’re enjoying the current workout cycle, GRIND.

We’re spending 8 weeks focused on building a gymnastics strength and aerobic capacity that we will continue to develop in upcoming cycles.

Here’s what the cycle entails.

Monday - Heavy Lower Body Lift. We’ll alternate between squatting and hinging movements.

Tuesday - Gymnastic Skills. We’re working you towards getting or strengthening muscle ups and pull ups.

Wednesday - Zone 2 Work. Some find it hard to believe, but you build aerobic capacity when you’re not pushing hard. The goal with these longer aerobic pieces is to stay in Zone 2. How do you know if you’re in Zone 2? If you have a heart rate monitor, subtract your age from 180, and try to keep your heart rate at that level. If you don’t, sit next to a friend in class and chat the entire time you’re working out. If you can hold a conversation, you’re in Zone 2. Another good option is to breath through your nose only during the workout—if you can manage your oxygen needs using only your nose, you’re likely in Zone 2. Resist the urge to push hard on these days!

Thursday - Snatches. We’re building pulling strength and focusing on technique.

Friday - Heavy Upper Body. On Friday, we alternate between pulling and pushing using our upper body.

Saturday Oly - Split Jerk. Saturday WODs continue to be accessible partner WODs, while Oly class is focusing on jerk drills, and is coming up on a one rep max split jerk test.

Sunday - Sweat Class. These workouts continue to be cardio capacity focused.

As always, although the whole week is programmed, you need to listen to your body, prioritize recovery + take rest days! Need help deciding when to rest or with effective recovery strategies? Reach out to any coach.

NUTRITION UPDATE

CONGRATS TO OUR FEAST FIFTY CHALLENGE WINNERS

On July 22, we launched the Feast Fifty Challenge for all Members who wanted to participate. Members scored themselves daily on their progress at adopting the following healthy habits:

Good Night = Good Morning! 2 points if You Were in Bed Lights Out for More than 8.5 hours. 1 point if You Were in Bed Lights Out for 7 - 8.5 hours.
Savory Breakfast: 1 Point if Your Breakfast Had at Least One Card Deck Protein (4 ounces) and 0 added sugars
Protein and Produce Lunch: 1 Point if Your Lunch Had at Least One Card Deck Protein (4 ounces) and at least One Fist Produce
Protein and Produce Dinner: 1 Point if Your Dinner Had at Least One Card Deck Protein (4 ounces) and at least One Fist Produce
Healthy Fat Bonus: 1 Point if each of your meals contained one of the fats from the "Protein, Produce, Fats" sheet
Water Intake Bonus: 1 Point if you drank at least half your bodyweight in ounces of non-caffinated, non-sweetened liquids
Meal Prep Bonus: 2 Points if you prepared all of your meals today. 1 Points if you prepared 2 of your meals.
No Sweeteners Bonus: 2 Points if none of the foods you ate today included added sugar or sweeteners

At the end of 50 days, everyone won by making progress towards adopting these habits that will keep them fit for life. And our top scorers were

Mike Lim: 341
Susie Lesher: 338
Huong Pham: 330

Mike won a personalized nutrition consult with Coach Terri, including a macro Rx if he wants it ($100 value), as well as a Feast apparel item of his choice. Susie and Huong both won Feast apparel items of their choice, or a 12 pack of a FitAid flavor of their choice.

Newsletter #22 October 2023