Month: June 2012

It’s a CHIPPER Tuesday!

NO REALLY… We had a funtastic chipper for our WOD today.

6/12/12 WOD

Yes you read that correctly: 200 Double Unders, 50 Dead Lifts and 30 Push Press. RX weight was 85lbs, but I’m thinking my max is 90lbs so 85 is pushing it. I loaded up 65lbs but Coach was like why don’t you make that 75lbs, so dragging my feet I loaded up 10 more pounds. I was ready to go I suppose.

Anytime there’s a CLOCK and DU’s involved I suddenly suck at DUs. I can string at least 30-40 on any given day, moment or whatever but put a clock on me and I’m toast! I was thinking I’d have 200 done in 3 minutes or so, I’m not really sure about the time that I did finish the DUs, I just know it was more than 3 minutes. Moving on to Dead Lifts was what I was looking forward to and you just don’t imagine DUs smokin your ass so quick. I was doing the DL’s so slow at first and caught myself wondering why I was moving so slow, this is relatively light weight. I did the first 25 pretty slow and then picked up the pace for the last 25. Push Press is what really got me. I would do 2, then 3, then rest, the 5, then 2 more. I was a mess. I didn’t want to drop it because I didn’t want to clean it every time but I just couldn’t hold on to it. I struggled a lot but I pushed past limits which is always the goal right? Time: 14:55

I felt much better after this workout than I did with CINDY from yesterday. Big ol REST day tomorrow which I am thankful. I need rest although tomorrow I will be ants in my pants wanting to workout. Yes I’m sick in the head like that. I love getting a good workout in! But I also know without proper recovery I’ll be screwed.

I know this is short post without much depth but I don’t have anything going on in my noggin right now. Eat clean, work hard, pick up heavy stuff and put it over your head, and do it all the time. It’s a good thing Charlie Brown. I promise. You’ll feel like a badass, you’ll look like a badass and best of all you’ll KNOW you’re a badass!


 

KICK MY BUTT HOPE and WEAK SAUCE CINDY

CrossFit for HOPE BOOM BOX Crew! Hot, sweaty and GOOFY!

Wowowow. This weekend went by way too quickly. Saturday at the BOOM Box was CrossFit for Hope. As I had mentioned on Friday this was a fundraiser workout to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. And here is the workout:

“HOPE”
3 Rounds – 1 minute at each station plus a 1 minute rest station.

Burpees
75 pound Power snatch
Box jump, 24″ box
75 pound Thruster
Chest to bar Pull-ups

We had a good turnout and put in a lot of work. I had no idea how bad thrusters would be after doing the box jumps. I did everything at 45lbs and used bands for chest to bar. I had a final of 176 reps. It was super hot and I was super spent but I pushed through. So proud of my kiddo though, he managed to get 194 for his total! Also you can still donate if you wish and support the BOOM BOX’s efforts: http://hope.crossfit.com/widget/athlete?id=2312

If you only thought that was crazy we had an Oly class afterwards. Fortunately it was a lot of going over technique and not a lot of picking up weight but dang we were struggling even with PVC! It was a good class though and I look forward to learning more. It’s definitely worth doing. I will learn to be efficient in my lifts and I will be AWESOME!

WOD 6/11/12

Then comes Monday. The day we all despise and wish it didn’t exist and well it’s just Monday. Today’s whiteboard had Cindy on the agenda. I got my new kicks, Nano 2.0s, and I was actually looking forward to this. Sadly I was overestimating myself.

Skill/Strength – We worked back squat and press. We worked our way up to 3 sets of 5 at 65% of our 1RM and that wasn’t too shabby. After that we did 1 set of 5 on press at 75% of our 1RM.

MetCon- CINDY
20 min amrap

5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air-squats

I used the green band and only the green band. My max on the green band is 6 reps (barely). I had enough in me to complete 3 rounds fairly quickly then I lost it all in the pull ups. I struggled, BAD! I only got 6 rounds and 4 pullups in and it took me a long time to get those 4 pullups completed. I had a shit ton of NO REPS because I’d be so close but no chin over the bar. I was pissed, hot, sweaty and more pissed. Ah well. I busted out the pushups and air squats the best I could. I definitely brought the WEAK SAUCE this morning. Hopefully tomorrow is a better showing 😦

Random things
So I mentioned I got a pair of Reebok CrossFit Nano 2.0s. They are cute and comfortable and although they didn’t give me magical pull up powers they felt good. If you’re looking into buying a new shoe then I highly recommend them. Granted I’ve only worn them for 1 workout but they really felt good. I still love my inov-8s but I do love these shoes as well.

Also, we ordered some Cinnamon Paleo Krunch (http://stevesoriginal.com/store).

This was a perfect fix for any random cereal cravings. I did take in some milk (grassfed, non homogenized, low pasteurized) and it was good, no ill tummy effects. Very yummy! Go buy some now and send it my way… THANKS!

One more thing, Ernie ordered me some Rogue Gymnastics Grips and I got to test those out this morning. Hand savers and everyone should go get some if you are a wuss bag such as myself. Better than tape, and less painful on the hands when sucking at pull ups.

I hope everyone has a better Monday than me! Make it great. Talk at y’all tomorrow 🙂

 

 

Turkish TORTURE!

Happy Friday Everyone!

This morning at the BOOM BOX was a downright beating! We started off with Push Press 3 RM. What that means is that we find our MAX weight doing 3 reps. If you only get 2 reps at a certain weight then it’s a FAIL. I made it through 90lbs. Went to lift 95lbs and just lost confidence. I didn’t try again because time was out for making attempts. Last time I did this was back in February. I jumped from 85lbs to 95lbs and failed. I didn’t remember this at the time but I was much smarter and made the smaller step to 90lbs and finished there.

6/8/12 WOD

Metcon: TURKISH GET UPS (aka TURKISH TORTURE) – 40 reps for time. Below is a picture to demonstrate. Up and down is one rep. Goal was to do 20 reps on each arm. I practiced with a 10lb dumbbell and moved up to 12KG (approx 24lbs) Kettle Bell for the workout. I did 5 on each side up to 25, then went back and forth in 2’s. This didn’t end up evenly and I was smoked. This was a no joke kind of MetCon. Long and grueling. Time 20:21

I didn’t have much else to report on. Ernie saved a turtle on the road and we released him at a park pond last night. Kids named him Tubby the Turtle.

This morning I gave this banana pancake a go that I found on the 21-Day Sugar Detox Facebook page. I can’t recall if they posted it or just someone who was doing the detox and came up with it. It wasn’t bad in taste but the consistency was more of a mush if you will. All 3 of my kids liked it but maybe if I use almond flour instead of coconut flour, or less coconut milk or something! Hahah I will have to play around with it. No pics cause it was ugly. And no recipe cause it’s on a post it note at home. Once I perfect it I’ll share 🙂

Also had the good fortune for a photogenic dragonfly who wanted it’s picture taken. He/she was cute. I LOVE dragonflies.

I hope everyone has a GREAT WEEKEND! If you’re local it’s another Community WOD at the BOOM BOX. CrossFit for Hope will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The goal is to raise 1.7MM – one day’s operating cost for St. Jude – to combat childhood cancer and other deadly diseases. Come on out if you can or find a local box near you, there’s a good chance they will be participating.

I hope your weekend is full of ROCK N ROLL and adventure. I leave you with random motivations I found on the interwebs!

Toes To Bar Thursday

And I actually didn’t suck as bad as I normally. This thing called PROGRESS is awesome! Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t in beast mode or anything, just better than my previous TTB attempts.

As always I never give you a constant flowing blog to read. I jump around. So let me start with the beginning of our 5am fun at the BOOM BOX.

For Skill/Strength we worked on Muscle Up technique. I’m nowhere near getting a MU but practice never hurts. We worked with the rings lower to the ground and used bands to support us. We sat on the band and stretched out horizontal like lying down but eleveated, letting the band hold us and then use our hips as our power to get to the rings and still stay horizontal. I searched the interwebs for a picture but I didn’t find one straight away so I gave up. I had this movement down pretty ok the first couple of tries but then something happened where my brain stopped working and my body went wonky and lacked coordination. We then moved on to sitting up and getting our feet under us. I had good technique for 2 attempts and then just lost it. It puts a lot of strain on my shoulders and I had more fails than I wanted. But it was definitely great to work on those small but super important movements.

Nowhere near this movement for me but this is for those of you not sure what I’m talking about when I say Muscle Up.

The MetCon was 10 min AMRAP of 5 TTB and 10 Double Unders. I dread the TTB but I managed to remember to borrow Ernie’s hand grips (which helped tremendously). I did much better than I ever have with TTB. My first couple of rounds they weren’t bad at all but I did lose that grip toward the end and I just can’t hang on and bust those out. Double Unders – I got those down now! Now 15 isn’t alot but I did 8 of my 10 rounds unbroken so it’s nice to feel “good” at something 🙂 Total Count: 10 Rounds + 4 TTB

Nothing else to report today. It’s rainy and blah outside but I still feel good! Eating clean does a body good folks! Try it out! There’s a couple of pics below to show you the sort of things I eat during the day while I’m at work. Have a glorious Thursday!

Typically a snack. Pasture Chicken Eggs and Pork Belly = YUMMO!

Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole, Salad and Buffalo that a coworker shared. It was cooked perfectly!

Top Sirloin Kabobs that I didn’t Kabob, just stir fried in a skillet, nice Steamed Broccoli and some Cherry Tomatoes = Happy Tummy!

Tired Tuesday & Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole

Yup I’m tired, sleepy, and more tired. I’ve been watching Game of Thrones Season 1 and I’m allowing it to interfere with my sleep habits. Not good and I’ll probably have to slow my roll cause I fear a Crash and Burn is coming. Rest is key to recovery and I’m eating into my rest. Darn series!!

6/5/12 WOD

I still woke up for the BOOM BOX and put my work in. Back Squats were the skill/strength today. We did 6 sets of 3 at 80% of our 1 RM getting around 2 minutes rest between sets. This wasn’t too bad. I did lose strength on the last set but still pushed through the sets at 115lbs. My first set was slightly lighter because at 5am, I can’t count!

The MetCon rang a familiar tune. Plyo Push Ups and Sled Pulls!
I found a very similar workout from Feb. 21 and I remember it about killed me! If you read that post then you should really know I don’t want to do this workout. But it didn’t kill me last time so I’m thinking it won’t kill me this time around.

 

This morning we didn’t go for time, we just did work for the sake of putting in work. I recall last time we did this I thought my ass fell off during one of the pulls. But this time wasn’t as strenuous. Looking back at that MetCon in February I saw we did heavier weight, not much heavier but indeed a bigger load. I am a little stronger 3 months later so that probably helped this time around but I’m telling you SLED PULLS may be the death of me at some point. I was not made for that movement at all! I’m just glad there was no times kept today. It would have been a sad day for me on the whiteboard!

Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole
So I had some extra ground beef and I wasn’t feeling meatloaf or meatballs, what can I make? I went to the good ol google for paleo and ground beef recipes and I stumbled across two recipes that sounded great from PaleOMG. (Yes you should follow this blog, always good stuff!) The first recipe I found was Sweet Potato Enchiladas and the second was the Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole. Well I was all set to make enchiladas. I had the sweet potatoes but they were a pain in the ass to get thin sliced as the recipe called for so I bailed on that recipe and chose the casserole. My food processor can shred those sweet potatoes right up! It was quite tasty and definitely different than the rut I’ve been stuck in food-wise. I did make the homemade sauce from the Enchilada recipe and it’s below as well. We ate it for dinner but it could be for any meal really. I’m really hoping it’s good for lunch. Leftover casserole can either be AWESOME or just plain ol blah. We shall see! I also gave some leftovers to my dad. He’s been going Paleo-ish. I hope he liked it as well 🙂 I did fail to take a picture so unless lunch looks beautiful you may have to wait till the next time I make this dish.

I know shut up and give us the recipe! Here it is:

Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

  • 1lb Grass fed Ground Beef
  • 2 sweet potatoes, shredded
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 6 eggs, whisked
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tablespoon bacon fat (or other fat)
  • 1 (14oz) can of El Pato Enchilada Sauce or homemade
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Pull out a large skillet or oven proof cooking dish. (aka cast iron skillet, etc)
  3. Place skillet over medium heat, add a tablespoon of fat then add your minced garlic and diced onion.
  4. When onion just begins to soften, add your ground beef and use a spoon or spatula to break it up and combine with onion.
  5. Now use your shredding attachment on your food processor to shred you sweet potatoes. If you don’t have a food processor, just use a grater then go to the store and buy a food processor for next time. Life will be better with one.
  6. When your meat is almost cook through, add all your spices to the meat and onions and mix to combine the flavors.
  7. Now pour your shredded sweet potatoes on top of the meat and pat down then add your enchilada sauce on top.
  8. Cover and let simmer for around 8-10 minutes.
  9. Once sweet potato begins to soften, remove from heat, add your whisked eggs and stir to combine it all together.
  10. Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until eggs are cooked through.
  11. Let cool, this b*tch is gonna be hot!! The enjoy! For breakfast, lunch or dinner!!

For the sauce

Pulled from Sweet Potato Enchilada Recipe

  • 1 (14oz) can tomato sauce
  • 1/4 yellow onion, minced
  • 1/3 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 tablespoon Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • salt and black pepper, to taste
  1. Place a saucepan over medium heat for your sauce. Add your tablespoon of oil along with your minced onion.
  2. When the onion becomes translucent, add your tomato sauce and vegetable broth, as well as all your seasonings. Let that cook down until it thickens just a bit.

That’s it for this Tuesday. Hopefully I won’t let Game of Thrones consume my night and I’ll get some sleep!!! Have a tremendously terrific day 🙂

Become ONE with the (pull up) BAR

Ya not so much today but getting there I guess… just really slowly. I’m such a wussbag. But in the long run, my tolerance to hanging on the bar has gotten better. It still starts to hurt before too long but not as quickly as it once did.

This morning at the BOOM Box we worked on ring rows and pull up skills. We first did MAX REP ring rows x 3. I dutifully started out RX with my legs straight and felt fine. Coach came over and corrected the width of my arms and well my RX straight legs went out the window. I had to bend my knees for the remainder of rows. I managed to get 13, 8 and then 6. Not bad but not good either.

6/4/12 WOD

We moved on to max pull ups. So far I’ve been a slacker on my pull up work and my max with the green band has been 5. I busted a whopping 6 today! It’s better than the 3 I started off with a couple of months ago I suppose. After our MAX we worked on kipping and all the work that goes into that. I’m much better at kipping but still lack the strict pull up strength to get my chin over that bar. By now my hands hurt. I’m done. I did not become ONE with the bar. Another day.

MetCon: 8 rounds of 20 sec run, 10 sec rest with 35lb bumper. So it’s a TABATA of running! Yay for running! 😦
We had 10 yards marked out with cones. We had 20 seconds to get as many lengths as we could, then rest for 10 seconds. At each cone we had to touch the ground with the weight. Keeping count wasn’t so bad today for some reason. Overall distance 32 full lengths. Although I was struggling at the end and at a loss for catching my breath my recovery time wasn’t so bad. Maybe I am getting better at this thing called running (sprinting, jogging, etc.). Maybe today was just a fluke!

Weekend Happenings, Eating, and Rambling
We are pretty much fuddy duddies as of late. Maybe because we had a break in baseball and we just needed to chill and maybe cause we are flat out lazy! Hehehe. I did make it out to Homestead Farms on Saturday and my slacker old self didn’t take one picture. It didn’t even cross my mind, new place, new people, FORGETFUL FRANK! If you live in the Keller area it’s not a bad place to check out. They have grassfed beef, pasture chicken and pork. They also have raw goat’s milk from their own goats there on the farm. There was a varied selection of seasonal vegetables, all pesticide free. They carry an assortment of beef jerky, almond butters and other items I can not clearly remember. Pictures would be helpful right now! I ended up walking out with a couple of yellow onions, a few peaches (yummo), raspberries, and beef jerky. The had some chickens outside the back of their store for people to go see. It was a cute place. reasonable priced and in the middle of suburbia. It was a little out of the way for us to make a regular trip but if you are in the area it’s a good place to visit!

My eating habits weren’t right on point but not too bad at all. We were pretty boring… nothing fancy. I did eat those peaches though. They were perfect! And I went ahead and ate a yogurt parfait and La Madeliene because an omelet just didn’t sound good at the time. I didn’t feel any ramifications from eating dairy and fruits so I felt ok with my decision.

I don’t have much to ramble about really, it just flowed well in my subtitle. Heheh. I did stumble across this blogger who shares her struggles about her kiddo and his health, behavioral issues and how removing gluten and dairy from his diet helped him tremendously. Check it out at: http://mypickyglutenfreekid.blog.com/

Enjoy this MONDAY! Make it fantabulous and be awesome at it!

It’s JUNE?!?

Oh yes it is… where does time go? Seriously. The kids are now on summer break and I am not! (Why oh why didn’t I become a teacher?) I’ve now been doing the CrossFit for 9 months! I can hardly believe it. Am I stronger? YES! Am I healthier? YES! Am I a NINJA? YES! No? Ok maybe not really but I like to believe I have some wicked ninja potential.

But also on the flip side I still deal with issues such as my weight, my eating habits and my mental state in regards to what “fit” is. I can tell you though that in the past year and a half I have come a long way, mentally and physically. And yet I still have that fat girl in my head saying ugly things. As the cliché goes, we are our own worst critic. I am extremely harsh on myself and it’s hard to break that habit. I’m dealing and I’m getting better. I just needed to get it out and let y’all know I’m human. I’m not on a soapbox or anything and I want to be clear about it. I’m always pushing the Paleo, CrossFit and getting healthy AND I’m not here to say it’s easy. I’m here to say it’s work and it can be hard sometimes and you gotta put time in but it’s all possible if you WANT it! It’s possible if you put aside your excuses – the what if’s, the but’s and the I’m really happy with myself cause I like to eat and there’s NO WAY I’m giving _____ up! I could go on and on. No time. I have kids. They won’t eat what I need to eat. My husband, My wife. NO support… blah blah blah. I hear ya. I can hear you saying it now. I’m hoping today is the day you say “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”. But it’s the weekend Stephanie. I can’t do it now. It’s Pizza night! I’m here to tell you YOU CAN. So just grow up a little and put your big girl panties on and at least make a plan to start.

Alright Alright if you’re still reading. I’m DONE for now. I need to recap my BOOMERIFIC morning. I feel the need for some dun dun dun sound effects: Drama Button

THE CRIPPLER!

30 Back Squats (Body Weight)

1 mile run

6/1/12 WOD

Yuuuupppp! Insane right? Well my body weight is damn near my MAX Back Squat so we took a percentage of our body weight. My weight today for Back Squats was 100lbs even. Not super heavy but 30 reps is A LOT! I should have kept better time at when I finished the squats so I could gauge my run. It’s not easy taking off to run after so many squats in a row. I broke the 30 up – 1 set of 10 and 4 sets of 5. I thinkI finished somewhere between 3 and 4 minutes but I am not certain. Overall time: 13:54. One more time for those of you who don’t follow along regularly. I suck at running, I don’t like running and yes I suck at running. Unlike on Monday where I walked some of the mile due to my poor eating and the blazing sun, I’m happy to report I did not stop this time. In the past I typically don’t stop anyways but my self sabotaging eating habits really screwed me over this week. My wannabe skinny girl in my head kept saying, Coach just made you weigh in to determine backsquat and it is not a number you are happy with so DON’T STOP! And I didn’t. I forget how long it takes to rid your “clean” body of “junky foods” but I’m thinking it’s still a while. Just gotta keep keepin on!

I think the plan this weekend is to check out a local farm that’s not too far away. Hopefully I’ll be a good lil blogger and take some pics to share.

Hope y’all have a ADVENTUROUS and AWESOME weekend!