Mobility Hurts SO Bad errr GOOD!

Wooo, this was supposed to get published yesterday. So I’m playing catch up now, my apologies for the delay!

Yesterday morning at the BOOM Box instead of skill or strength we worked on Shoulder mobility. And it hurt so good! I just wish it didn’t HURT that good! Holy geesh! If you’re familiar with Kelly Starrett over at Mobility WOD then you know he has a knack for wanting to hurt help you! And today we worked on some things I know came from his part of the world.

OUCHY MAMMA INDEED!

MetCon: Team WOD Team WOD (2 person) 200 DU, 120 STOH 75/45, 60 over the box jumps 20 inch
Alright, I can be competitive in this. Right? 3-2-1 Go… Double Unders coming up. My teammate hasn’t quite got DUs down so he had to do 3:1 singles. So I did 50 DUs and he did 150 singles. Got to Push Press/Jerk and started off quick doing 15 each. That got tough really fast so we took a step down to alternating every 10 reps. I was still feeling pretty good by the time we go to the Over the Box jumps and I NO REPPED right off the bat. DOH! I had this itty bitty fear of clearing the box and I messed up. And I took more of a step than a JUMP. I ended up jumping on the box then jumping off for each rep. Something about not making it over really makes my heart race. But we didn’t really slow down. Kept our pace up and finished strong! Time: 10:36

2/6/13 WOD

2/6/13 WOD

Other than really trying to push at the Box, I’m still eating relatively strong. Ernie is coming along with eating clean as well. It’s not his first go at it, but it’s been slow getting him back on track. But last night we did decided to go eat sushi because I didn’t feel like cooking. I had a little bit of everything including some rice rolls but also sashimi. I tried to avoid the soy sauce but I didn’t avoid it entirely. In the end, I didn’t feel stuffed or bloated, it is sushi after all! But I did come away with a slight headache. This however is something I can tolerate for a sushi treat 🙂 Slept like a champ still and even woke up before the alarm clock. It’s nice to just wake up and not have the alarm ruin everything.

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I’ve been trying to think of something new and fresh to add to my blogging besides daily recaps. Is there anything you readers would like to see/know/etc.? All of your input is welcome. Again, I’m here for support if you need an online cheerleader or just a friend in your adventure called life. This journey of fitness had made me stronger, happier and healthier. I may not have the certified background/education in fitness or nutrition but I have the day to day life experience. I have real life that goes on everyday. I have obstacles, emotions, KIDS and time management issues. I feel I am like a good majority of the people out there and just want to encourage you that it’s possible to live an active and healthy lifestyle!

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Well today is my rest day and hopefully I’ll spend some quality time doing mobility work at home. Enjoy your day. Make it great and make it AWESOME!

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It’s One of Those Days

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You know the ones where you just have nothing in the tank. No more juice. My bones felt heavy today and even though I put in work at the BOOM Box it was just a dragging kind of morning. I blame it on the drizzle and fog. It felt like it infiltrated my body and was weighing me down. Or maybe I just didn’t eat enough carbs or something, who knows. Just felt like I was swimming in molasses!

Skill/Strength: Squat Cleans
I’m a CLEAN kind of girl. Love me some Cleans: Power, Squat, Hang (kind of). I ❤ cleaning the bar. There wasn’t a weight goal, rep scheme. Just work on technique, work up in weight and well have fun. Too bad I felt super heavy today. I still worked up to 95lbs and felt fine. There are so many tiny things to think about. Hips extended, drop under bar, elbows up, etc. Some lifts I get easy breezy, then I turn around and mess everything up. I felt productive though.

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MetCon: 5 rounds of max reps on DL,WB; 40 seconds on 20 sec off; DL Axel 200/130, Plank push-ups (do a push-up every 5 seconds), Wall Ball 20/14
The good ol Axel. I love this thing! It’s about an inch thicker than a regular barbell. But I really prefer this over a barbell. Although after a while it’s hard to hold onto it because it is so thick. My hands didn’t hurt near as much either. I know it wasn’t super heavy weight but still it was nice on the hands. So we had to do as many reps as possible in 40 seconds, rest/transition to next movement which was Plank Push Ups for 40 seconds, rest/transition to Wall Balls. 5 freakin rounds! This sucked by round 4, no round 3. It was a beating. It was mostly the wall balls that were a beating. My first couple of throws didn’t even make the cut. So after getting a few NO REPS I knew I had to stop wasting energy but it was so hard today to get that ball up! It didn’t help we were holding a plank position right before the wall balls. On top of that doing a push up every 5 seconds. Yup shoulders still smoked, now they are extra crispy. In the end it was still a fun MetCon. Total reps: 85. If I could have just sucked up Wall Balls a little more I know I could have done way better. Ah well.

2/5/13 WOD

2/5/13 WOD

My WAY Better (IMO) Mexi-Cauli Rice
I’ve made Cauli Rice several ways and I have a Mexi version already but I made a new version and I love it. I hope you love it too!

Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower
1 cup chicken broth or water (I prefer the broth)
1 can tomato paste (small can)
1 TBS Chili Powder
Salt/Pepper (to your liking)
Cumin (to your liking)
Cayenne (to your liking)
half an onion (diced)
garlic clove (minced)
2 tsp cooking fat (I prefer GHEE)

Mexi-Cauli Rice – Ernie was kind enough to snap a pic for me, since I forgot to take pictures while I was making this.

Mexi-Cauli Rice – Ernie was kind enough to snap a pic for me, since I forgot to take pictures while I was making this.

Cook it up:
Chop up cauliflower into flowerettes. Then Shred cauliflower in food processor using the pulse function until Cauliflower is shredded to rice consistency.

While you are doing that have GHEE heating up over MED heat in skillet. Add your onion and garlic, saute till Golden. Add Cauliflower. Stir and add all spices. You can toss in whatever to meet your ideal flavor profile. Then add chicken broth. If you are low on chicken broth substitute with water. I only had 1/2 broth so I added a 1/2 cup water. Stir some more. Add tomato paste and Stir once more. Cover and simmer till a desired consistency. 15-20 minutes is what I have found best. If you’re in a hurry like I always am, I don’t turn down the heat right away. I just cover it and let it cook at a higher heat for a few minutes before turning heat to a simmer temp.

Serve with Ground beef, chicken, steak, WHATEVER protein you like. Add some guacamole and maybe a salad. It’s great stuff.

WholeLIFE
Back on track with the Whole30 mindset and boy does it feel good. Food tastes better and I’m full of energy until around 8:30 pm. Then I feel the tired hitting. Which is perfect. Relax a bit, watch some TV and night night! One of my fellow BOOMers, Mel, is taking on the Whole30 and asked me to be her SPONSOR per se. I’m more than happy to be her supporter and help her out along the way! Yay MEL! I know you will kill it and I know you won’t be happy probably this first week but next week you should start feeling awesome.

Superbowl Party Eats – I forgot to add this pic yesterday! doh! Paleo Deviled Eggs and Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potatoes

Superbowl Party Eats – I forgot to add this pic yesterday! doh! Paleo Deviled Eggs and Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potatoes

If anyone else is considering the Whole30, by all means, I’m an OPEN BOOK! I want to help you out!

Woooo, oh wait it’s only TUESDAY?!? That’s no fun! Ah well, make it a great day! Be Awesome!

I have never said No to being a source of awesome - craftsnark

No More Burpees!

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Can I just get a burpee BREAK?!? I know that won’t happen but wouldn’t it be nice? I had a busy weekend, lots of working out and some off road eating. Yikes! But have no fear. Whole30 is here to stay even if it’s on loose terms every now and then! Where should I start? I guess I’ll start with Saturday and work my way up to today! Hopefully I don’t dredge on for too long! I know y’all LOVE me but not sure how much exactly 😀

SATURDAY 2/2
Boom Box morning consisted of Deadlifts and SNATCH. Boy oh Boy. I failed to take a picture but ah well. I’ve been fairing much better in the Deadlift, at least I FEEL good at doing them!

Skill/Stength: DL 4×5@77.5%
Working at 77.5% isn’t so bad. Ended up being 155 for me. I felt good through all the sets. My hamstrings used to be so tight, they would light up like Christmas and hurt like hell. Now I don’t have all of those issues, which is nice.

MetCon: 10 min AMRAP Snatch 30 reps at each weight 75/45 135/75 165/100 210/120 Scaled 35 55 75 90
Argh, 12.2 of last years CF Open. I still don’t SNATCH more than 65lbs out of me being a weirdo. I know I can do the weight, I’m just a scaredy cat. So of course I went with the scaled weights. I managed to get through 35lbs and 55lbs. Had time to get a few in at 75lbs but that wasn’t happening. I still kept trying but I was getting nowhere. Although I don’t care for SNATCH that much, I do like lifting in general. Just one more thing to work on!

Girls Night Out @ CrossFit Pantego
CFP is a box that is in the area and I happen to know the owners. They decided to host a GNO which sounded like fun to mix and mingle with other ladies from the area. Some folks were from that box, others newbies and even others came from other boxes. It was a good mix of novice and experienced women. Since there was such a good turnout the WOD didn’t consist of anything with bars or their pull up rig. It was all body weight movements. And it was a partner WOD to boot.

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200m run, push ups, 200m run, air squats, 200m run, burpees, 200m run, lunges, 200m run, sit ups. But wait there’s more. On your run you get a 10lb plate. While one partner ran, the other partner did the movement. Then partners switched. So each person did the run and the movement. Lucky for me and Mel, CrossFit BOOMer, we got the 20lb MED BALL to run with. That ladies and gentlemen is NO JOKE! We were hanging in there in regards to the running but towards the end we both fell apart. I figured if I was gonna suck at the run I better bust out the reps! Mel had the same idea as me and low and behold we score a whopping 528 reps! Wooo go us!

CrossFit Pantego Girl's Night Out

CrossFit Pantego Girl’s Night Out

After the WOD we headed over to a very generous hostess who let us come in and take over her house. We all brought some sort of eats. I myself brought Paleo Deviled Eggs and there was plenty of other goodness there to be had, Paleo and non Paleo but I stuck with the good stuff.

Monday 2/4
Boy oh boy am I sore! It hurt to do the warm up this morning. I was really afraid of not hitting the weight on the Strength portion cause I was sooooo Sore! But amazingly I did!

Skill/Strength: 3 x 2 Back Squat @ 95% of 1RMYup I got the reps in. Only one rep was kind of ugly but other than that, I did just fine. I am always slow at coming back up even though I’m trying to will myself to explode up! It just doesn’t happen. On my last set I kept thinking to myself to PUSH UP on the bar and low and behold I was a little quicker coming up. I know I’ve been told that. I know I’ve heard that on podcasts but today I really focused on that and whaddyaknow! It helped.

2/4/13 WOD

2/4/13 WOD

MetCon: 2 rounds 30 Burpees to plate, 400m run, REST 1:1,  then 4 rounds 15 burpees to plate, run 200
I bet you were wondering where NO MORE BURPEES came from and well now you know. Burpees last Saturday, Burpees this recent Saturday and Burpees this morning! And of course I’ve set a precedent that I can bust out burpees. This is a curse people, A CURSE! I can’t not do burpees well anymore. It’s a badge that I was proud of but I’m good now! I don’t need it anymore! So I didn’t even look at the clock to see how fast or SLOW I did the 30 burpees but I got back from the run in 4 minutes flat. So I got to rest for 4 minutes. Rinse and Repeat. I did the second round in 4:12. Woo I get an extra 12 seconds of rest! Not the goal I know but hey it’s 12 seconds. Then it was the 4 rounds with NO REST. Since most of you know I suck at running I wasn’t sure how it would all go down. I did my first round like a champ! Rounds 2, 3 and 4 a little hard! I got back from the first run and just went and knocked out 7 burpees, tried not to vomit then finished. After run 2 I only busted out 5 burpees, then dragged ass. It was the same after run 3! By the 4th round I was ready to quit. I got to 12 and I heard someone say just move and I finished the last 3 as if I was fresh out of the gate. Ran as fast as I could which wasn’t much. I finished the 4 rounds in just over 10 minutes with a final time of 27:02. Not too bad I hope. I’ll have to wait to see how the rest of the day pans out via the whiteboard though!

Whole30 – on track. kind of sorta!
So in the middle of Saturday I was tempted with Chick-fil-a, cupcakes, cookies, sweet tea, etc. All my fault as I purchased it all but it’s for a birthday party! I was GOOD! Excellent in fact, NO taste testing! By Saturday night, post GNO though I was tempted by those leftover cupcakes! I thought I’ll just take a bite. So I DID! And I SPIT IT RIGHT OUT! As good as I know they were since they were a hit with the kids, they were TOO SWEET! I would have never thought those words would come out of my mouth but they did! I didn’t swallow one crumb, I spit it out and rinsed my mouth out with water! Whew! It was a bittersweet feeling. Yay, I don’t need sweets and BOOO I don’t need sweets!

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Superbowl Sunday hits and I get a little off the path. I savored a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks. It didn’t send me spiraling downward. Did affect my stomach, but not sure if that was coffee in general or the combo of coffee, dairy and caramel? But I was good. Then I was all ready to go and ENJOY my paleo foods at a Superbowl Party. Plus our hosts had Paleo foods as well. BUT of course there were non Paleo foods in my face as well. I started off pretty ok. I had a few chips to go with the Guacamole I made but just 2 or 3.  I had brisket and deviled eggs and my favorite treat BACON WRAPPED sweet potato! Those were like candy to me. Then I chose to taste cake batter dip, which was made with Greek Yogurt. YUM, that was good! Then I chose to try TRASH DIP that had cream cheese, chili and some form a melted cheese. YUMMY. But they were just tastes! By the end of the night there were some BRISKET nachos being made. Well, there was my line. And I was going to cross it! And it was good. Chips, queso and Brisket! TRIPLE YUMMY! And won’t you know it within the hour of eating those my face got all itchy, my nose started running and I was a mess! And of course Ernie was right there in my face… THE NACHOS! argh, the probably VELVEETA cheese, although I did not inquire. But most party quesos in a crockpot consist of something along the lines of highly processed cheese such as velveeta. I still slept fine and woke up fine. Maybe a little more bloated feeling that I would have liked. Just a confirmation to stay on the WholeLIFE path! Stick with the clean eating and I’ll be fine. The good news is that YES I want to stay clean (sound like an addict much?) and I didn’t jump off the deep end and go bat shit crazy over junk! I think if I do indulge in treats they will be dark chocolate based or some sort of fruit sweetened muffin made with coconut flour or almond flour. Maybe some almond flour pancakes. But other than that, I don’t see myself diving into a banana split anytime soon.

I was back to eating my Whole30 plan of attack today. Even ventured out a little bit and made some Salmon Cakes! And my oh my they were tasty. I was limited on cooking and prep time so they were basic and they still turned out fabulous! Added some of my HOMEMADE PALEO MAYO that was leftover from the deviled eggs and BOOM I had a lovely lunch! Seriously, I could get crafty with these Salmon Cakes and I mostly likely will start soon!

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How’s that for a busy, fun, trial and error weekend? Good times! It’s just Monday but I am a ball of energy! Who says that? MONDAY and ENERGY?!? No freakin way! YES SIR! Go now, enjoy your day and BE FREAKIN AWESOME!

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Skills to pay the bills – NOPE

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So if I HAD to do Pull Ups to pay bills, I would be broke forever. I have no PULL UP skills! And today was all about SKILLS, no lifting, no MetCon. Yes I know I probably should do some movement homework but I don’t. SO YES it’s my fault. I just want to get that out of the way in case some of you have some smart remarks for me 😀 It’s just defeating mentally. I’m getting better (at least for the most part) at everything else even if it’s in small increments and I’m not practicing those skills outside of the box. So why is it that Pull Ups are such a burden for me? UGH! Pull UP fairy where are you?

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Is she only using like 2 fingers to hold herself up? Crazy! I suck!

Today at the BOOM box we only worked on Pull Ups and Muscle Ups. And when I say Muscle Ups I don’t mean I really worked on those but I worked on movements that fall into line with the movement. For Pull Ups, I pretty much only worked on kipping. It hurts to hold on to the bar no matter if I have grips, or just bare hands. I know I can be a baby but come on. IT HURTS my hands. I don’t want to hold on to the bar. Regardless of the pain, I have kipping down. I could be a professional kipper maybe. I just have no UP :/

After Pull Ups, like I said MUs! UGH. I worked on Ring Dips since that is what I need to get first. And low and behold I went from using the green band to the tiny blue band. I think I will have those pretty soon. My shoulders, rotator cuff is forever sore/tight/etc. But I could manage to get some work in. Once our time was up, I really worked on my shoulder mobility. It is much needed. So I’m glad I got that in. I even worked at home on my shoulders. It’s just hard to make it a priority at home, when I have 7897897 things to do in the evenings. Still taking sponsorships so I can stay at home! I’m scared for what tomorrow brings at the box especially since today wasn’t a beat down. Although Skill work is a beatdown to me when I can’t do the skill!

Getting my Boxing On
Since I missed my WOD this past Wednesday, I decided I needed to make up for it. I can’t make the BOOM Box other than 5 am due to my commute so I hit up a semi-new Boxing franchise that has been popping up in the DFW area. They offer a free class for first time visitors, SCORE for me. Back before my boot camp and CrossFit journey, I took boxing lessons from a local Boxing/MMA club. While this was an awesome thing for me, I wasn’t committing to proper nutrition and it was hitting my pocket book pretty hard, so I took a hiatus and never returned. With that said I love boxing, not real boxing because I don’t want to get hit but boxing against a bag.

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What I liked about Title Boxing Club is that the particular instructor I had wasn’t about just having a little aerobics class. He wanted you to really throw punches, real kicks and get a workout in. He worked with everyone in regards to technique and making sure people were not half-assing it. We started with about a 15 minute warm up which consisted of running, push ups, lunges and high knees.. Small 1 minute water breaks were incorporated. 30 minutes of boxing, kick boxing, with drills in the middle. So we might do Jump Squats, Jumping Jacks, Up Downs, etc. in between boxing combinations. For the last 10-15 minutes we did a lot of core work such as sit ups, butterfly kicks, push ups, etc. Overall my boxing endurance SUCKED but it felt good to hit something! This would never be BETTER than CrossFit for me, but definitely something I would consider doing a few times a month.

What I didn’t like is that there isn’t a drop in option. You pay for a month at a time which isn’t incredibly expensive, but with their limited times, my commitment to CrossFit and kids schedules, I’m not sure if it’s worth it for me. It was a good workout, I sweat my butt off and let out some aggression. Lifting weights seems to do the trick as well but again I love boxing and doing something different was fun!

Whole(30)LIFE

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Yup I gave you the review yesterday and I am OFFICIALLY through with 30 days. And I still made my Whole30 compliant breakfast today, brought leftovers for lunch and plan on eating just the same as I have been the past 30 days. Not a big deal in my book. I worked hard for this and I’m gonna stick to it. I feel good. I don’t want to go back to feeling icky. And when it’s all said and done, FOOD doesn’t run my world, no matter how delicious, decadent or savory it can be. WholeLIFE folks!

Dinner I almost finished before I remembered to take a pic: Chopped up sirloin, mixed veggies, avocado.

Dinner I almost finished before I remembered to take a pic: Chopped up sirloin, mixed veggies, avocado.

All the positive results have been great and on top of that I LOST 8.2LBS without even trying. I wasn’t counting calories, I was eating till I was satiated. I was eating good grass-fed meats, veggies and healthy fats. 3 times a day. PWO meals if needed.

Happy Friday! It’s FEBRUARY… if you fell apart in January, start over now! Don’t throw in the towel! Be Awesome this weekend!

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