Hangin’ In There

It’s been a busy couple of days in my little world. But we are making it work and I’m still showing up for evenings at the BOOM Box. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to 5 a.m.! I know I need to just for the sake of having evenings free for doing all the things the boys schedules require. But it sure is nice to be awake during my workouts!

And in regards to a busy life, YES I have fallen prey to excuses and pure laziness. In my eating habits, I have become increasingly better but I can definitely still feel in my joints from all the poor eating whether I partake in it once or day or ALL day. It takes a toll on the body. Everything is inflamed. I once lived in a day to day world of dirty eating. You get used to the aches, pains, sleepiness, headaches, etc… You write them off as getting older, not enough sleep, and numerous other excuses. I can honestly attest to the fact that those aches and pains go away when you eat clean and move your body.

The SORENESS from working out doesn’t ever go away but that’s not a PAIN that plagues you. That’s a sign of getting stronger. And you keep moving and eating clean and the soreness does fade away AND the joints get better, your mood gets better, sleep gets better. Do I need to get back to that HAPPY place? YES HELL YES! Should you give it a whirl for 30 days, 3 months, a year… DEFINITELY! Will you fall down? Probably but who really knows but you. Your mind and body will fail you but it’s up to you to get back up and back on it. I’m sitting here in the corner like a sulking kid knowing that I’m hurting myself and it sucks. So I’m trying to get back there – back to feeling good, to performing well and to eating clean. It’s like starting all over except for the fact that I know the reward at the end. For those of you who haven’t made the decision to change, it’s hard to imagine what 30 days can do for you. Get up and get moving. Cut out bread one week. Cut out artificial sweeteners the next week. Or just jump in the deep end and go strict. It’s up to you. You know YOU. Make a better version of YOU!

Below are some links that I found interesting this week. I’m going to try and share more of what I read more often. I tend to read a lot of info and then just digest it for me. Sharing is Caring!

http://www.naturalnews.com/040325_Splenda_diabetes_artificial_sweeteners.html

http://eattoperform.com/2013/03/15/the-gradually-awesome-approach-april-simmons-blackford/

http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/is-the-juice-worth-the-squeeze-how-to-get-more-with-less-in-your-workouts

As far as recaps. I’ll be short and sweet. I have 4 days to go over and I’m sure you don’t want to die of boredom reading them! So here goes it. By the way, all of the following WODS, I have sucked at! Which in the end should mean I will be getting better but this past week has been weakness after weakness for me. It’s defeating but I keep showing up.

5/9/13
Skill/Strength: SKIN the CAT and DU PracticeI can not skin the cat. I am horrible at this and my shoulders are dead. I felt super loserish because I was the only one who couldn’t do it at the 6pm time slot

I can however do Double Unders like a champ and worked on Triple Unders. Other than the one time I got ONE a few weeks ago, I can not manage to get another!

5/9/13 WOD

MetCon: Run 3 x 800m, rest 3 minutes in between run, 25 burpee penalty if over 21 minutesShould be an easy goal. Just run all 3 800m in less than 4 minutes. That didn’t quite happen. Poor attitude towards running = POOR RUNNING! I was horrible and not getting better. 25 burpees went really slow after all that running.

5/11/13 Community WOD
If I had known about the workout ahead of time I wouldn’t have shown up! More running! My poor partner, Eric, had to deal with my slow running!

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Max Effort Sit Ups and Push Ups

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Bar Hold and Push Up Hold (negative points if you fall from bar or drop to knees)

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Max Effort of KB Swing and Jumping Air Squats

With my sub-par running I wasn’t able to get many reps. And I dropped from the Bar Hang which is -5 points. All in all we didn’t do too shabby I guess finishing with 243 reps.

5/11/13 WOD

5/13/13
Skill/Strength: Back Squat 3, 3, 3+ at 70%, 80%, 90% 2 min rest between set
Today it all felt heavy. But I ended with 5 reps at 90%. I literally forgot how to breathe today and was holding my breath way too much. Once I would breathe, the lifts were much easier! Duh!

5/13/13 WOD

MetCon: 21-15-9 of Toes to Bar and Ring Dips (modified Straight Let Sit Ups and HR Push Ups)
I’ve established that I can do TTB even if it’s one at a time but Ring Dips are a no go. So I busted out TTB one at a time like a beast with only a few NO REPS. And I rested too much on push ups! On my last round of TTB I ripped and it hurted! Bad! So bad that I didn’t show up for Tuesdays WOD. Time: 9:39

5/15/13Skill/Strength: 5 x 3 Pendlay Rows, 5 x 3 Floor Press, 3 x 5 band weighted pull ups
Pendlay Rows are awkard for me and it’s been a while but I worked up to 95lbs so that felt good. It feels like it’s been FOREVER since we did Floor Press so I wasn’t sure what I could handle. Again we worked up to 95lbs. By the 5th set I was struggling to get all 3 reps but again I knocked them out and was feeling strong after being weary. Instead of weighted pull ups and cause of my wounded hand I opted for Ring Rows. So we would start up with chest to rings and slowly lower ourselves down over a 10count pace before lifting back up. These were easier than negative hang pull ups but still sucked!

5/15/13 WOD

MetCon: 2 rounds of Max Reps of Push Ups 90 seconds, Pull Ups 90 seconds, Rest 30 secondsAbout 30 seconds in on Push Ups my left shoulder was in pain. I sucked it up as best I could but only managed 39 reps. INFLAMMATION from crappy foods. As far as pull ups. I knew I wasn’t going to get many so I went ahead and used the green band and did the best I could. 9 reps. My hand held up pretty well the first round. Towards the end my forearms were dying. For the second round I busted out 10 push ups really nicely and fell apart from there. I completed 31 reps. Moved to Pull Ups and may hand was just hurting. Only completed 6. Total: 70 Push Ups, 15 Pull Ups

It’s almost Friday! WOOOOOO! If you are in the DFW metroplex… CrossFit Boom is having a party tomorrow night. Come out and have some food, fun and more fun! Go out and move! And you know the drill… BE AWESOME TOO!

Showing Up

is half the battle. Finishing Strong is the other half. As I proclaimed, I have reduced the act of stuffing my face with useless foods and am getting closer to that Clean Eating train I was on for so long. It’s still not perfect (note the keyword REDUCED) but tons better. I already feel the everyday bloat diminishing. Cause you know if you’ve ever taken on clean eating for a while then stop, that gradually, if not instantly, you build that bloated, heavy feeling.

Although I didn’t shout it out, I also have tried to reduce my negativity towards myself in the box. I think mostly because I’m mad at myself for returning to a chunky state, that I know I have to come in with a better mind set and get work done. I’m not going to let the extra pounds bring me down. Although they do slow me down. So I must fight through a little harder and I can not do that if I’m Negative Nelly!

5/7/13 WOD
My legs were in some crazy soreness after Mondays insanity. Oh Jumping Air Squats how you hurt me. And to greet my sore jello-y legs were Sled Pulls! These are right under Wall Balls in my dislike column.

Skill/Strength: Sled Pull 5 x 50ft 90lbs/45lbs
The sled I was pulling had 60lbs on it, plus the weight of the sled = not a shit ton of weight but you know it’s still the sled. I can say that the parking lot is a lot nicer at the new box than the old box and I can say it was definitely easier to pull. I still don’t like them!

5/7/13 WOD

MetCon: 8 minute AMRAP 8 Ring Dips, 12 Burpees
The 8 minutes went super fast for this one. I WANTED to use the Green Band but opted for the Blue Band after some nudging. I know I NEED to use the Blue one but it’s hard to get multiple reps. I started off round 1 strong and fell apart after that. For the second round it was hard to get consecutive ring dips. By the time I did knock them out I was so beat down I didn’t even want to do burpees. My added chunkiness does not make burpees fun at all. Not that they were fun before but a couple of months ago I could fly through them! I was trying to just get 4 rounds completed but missed it by 4 reps. Final: 3 rounds 8 dips, 8 burpees.

5/8/13
Still sore from Monday, are you kidding me? But it’s Deadlift Day and I like Deadlifts. Once upon a time I dreaded them. I was stuck at 185lbs forever. My hamstrings didn’t like me very much and I was a mess. Now I enjoy them, everything but my hands. Cause they sure do still hurt a lot after that last set.

Skill/Strength: Deadlift 5, 5, Max Effort @ 65%, 75% and 85% of 1RM
I normally struggle with the math early at 5 a.m. but when I have all day to calculate my percentages it’s not so bad. But I am supposed to remember them properly. In my head I had 120, 140, 160. In reality I was supposed to be doing 140, 160, 180! doh! I realized that halfway through. So I got some extra warm up! I was thinking 120 was feeling pretty light 😀 Worked my way up to 180 and busted out 10 reps. Wooo! I felt good with that since it’s been a while since I Deadlifted!

5/8/13 WOD

MetCon: 4 rounds of 15DU/1TU, 15 C2B Pull Ups, 15 DU/1TU, 15 PushPress @ 115lbs/75lbs, 15 DU/1TU, Rest 2 minutes … 25 minute cap
All day I thought I won’t make it but I gotta try. Then I talked myself into knowing I will survive and it will be alright. I have only ever completed one Triple Under and after a few minutes of working on it, Coach said just do Double Unders. Fair enough. I can do 15 quicker than attempting one TU. As for the Chest To Bar Pull Ups, I used a Green Band just hoping for 15 Pull Ups. I started off strong getting my Chest to the Bar but as the rounds went along, they turned into pull ups. As far as the Push Press went, the decision was made to go at 65lbs instead of 75lbs. Good call cause I think that extra 10lbs would have really smoked me and not in a good way. I was doing big sets but not UNBROKEN, until round 4. I had to finish strong and I did. Every bit of me wanted to drop the bar but I didn’t. It was nice to finish STRONG! Time: 22:29!

Food Front: So like I said I’m slowing getting back into the Clean Eating. I have definitely tightened it up but still working on it. Back to eating breakfast and the FAST FOOD has been eliminated. Healthier foods are in place. Kudos to Ernie even for cooking me up some yummy Drumsticks last night. Paired with a spinach salad and I was set for dinner.

Tonight is running and I really don’t want to go. But running is my weakness so I probably should show up! Send positive vibes my way so I don’t punk out! Other than that… have a great Thursday. It’s my Friday! Wooooo. Go out and be AWESOME!

Breaking Point

I finally gained enough weight to have a breakdown and stop stuffing my face hole. I’ve been in a funk as of late and I’m been eating like crap. It’s amazing how much weigh I can gain in 2 months. I haven’t been on top of my BOOM Box attendance and overall I’ve been a slacker. Instead of diving into the deep end of the pool, I’m just making small changes right now. I figure in the past I’ve been SUPER great about jumping in, going 100%, balls to the wall and being successful. But it doesn’t take me long to jump into the JUNK FOOD JUNKY pool either. So I’m making the changes back to being good and Paleo in small increments. Hopefully I can work myself back into my better Paleo days and drop some of this extra fluff I’ve acquired. Once I can get that dialed back in, I’ll go back to looking into Eating to Perform. Enough about my poor poor petri moment and onto my Boom Box recaps.

5/1/13 WOD
Last week was the week for some longer workouts and they were a beating. Wednesday was no different. We didn’t even have a Skill/Strength. We went straight to the WOD after warming up.

300 REPS
1 min @ each
Burpees, Step Ups, Axel Thrusters (70lbs/50lbs), Push Ups, Wall Balls

5/1/13 WOD

Yikes. That’s a lot of reps. Go through each movement for a minute and keep going through until you’ve reached 300 reps! Whew! Prior to the clock starting I had guessed I could at least get 75 reps in the first round. And I actually made it through 83 reps. And round and round we went. Wall Balls were the worst for me and Step Ups were the easiest. My upper body has been dead from Mon and Tues workouts. So Thrusters and Push Ups weren’t a lovely sight. Although I love using the AXEL, I struggled. I was on my fourth round and so close to 300. The goal for me was to finish before wall balls! And I did. I got to 300 reps during the Push Ups, thank goodness! Time 18:41

5/2 and 5/3. Pretty much 5/2 was freezing cold and the workout was RUNNING. So basically I punked out. Friday presented a much more fun opportunity that involved baseball so that was lame-o act number 2. And I probably stuffed my face too with a bunch of junk! Oh wait there was no probably I DID stuff my face. UGH.

5/4 Community WOD
The BOOM Box has moved and we had our first WOD at the new place. It’s so much more spacious than our old box and nicer. So it was exciting. We did some fun things, like flip tires, wall balls, 3 legged runs, TABATA and just some post WOD hanging out.

There was a 300lb tire already living in the vicinity outside the box so we took the opportunity to work on proper technique to lift the tire. Low and behold we even got pics and video. Thank you Annette!

It was a fun time and I’m looking forward to calling this new spot home.

5/6/13 WOD

My initial goal was to make Mondays at 5 a.m. and mix it up during the rest of the week with 7 p.m. as well. Well I had some falling asleep issues Sunday night and stayed up way too late to be getting up at 4:30 a.m. What lied ahead was a doozy and I knew I wouldn’t have survived. So I went in the evening hoping I would make it through. The numbers on the board proved that I could finish within the time cap but I wasn’t sure if I actually would.

Skill/Strength: BackSquat 5, 5, 5+ @ 65%, 75% and 85% of our 1RM

It’s been a while since I squatted, or at least it feels that way so I wasn’t sure how I would hold up in the last set. Especially when 75% started feeling heavy. I get to my last set which is 140lbs and get through 3 feeling good. It was 4, 5 and beyond where I was still putting in the work but I just wasn’t sure how long I could go. I managed to get 7 reps. Went for my 8th but bottomed out. That’s the worst feeling! To just be stuck in the bottom of the squat.

MetCon: 400m run, 30 HRPU, 50 Jumping Air Squats, 40 Toes To Bar, 50 JAS, 40 Walking Lunges, 50 JAS, 50 Sit Ups, 400m run

Welp, this was a beating in the making for sure. And all I was worried about was the run and those TTB! Before I got out of my car, I took a deep breath and I just said KILL THE TTB! As I knew it would be, the run was miserable. It’s better than the old box for sure without that hill, but I still am not friends with the running. It took me longer than I had hoped on the Push Ups because I couldn’t catch my breath. So I went in short increments to get to the 30 although I feel I probably should have done them UNBROKEN. Went to the Jumping Air Squats and I had a goal to do 25 and 25. WRONG. I did 10s, and 5s till I got to 50. My legs were dead from the run I suppose. Now to my nemesis, TTB. Like I said before I walked into the box my mind was set to kill those things and that I did! One at a time mind you but I attacked the bar and went. Went through without having to NO REP myself. That in itself is a small miracle. The next 100 JAS and lunges in the middle were killer on the quads. Thankfully the sit ups were a little bit of leg rest before the final run. I didn’t run the whole 400m which is not good but I just didn’t have any more run in me. I did however make it under the 25 minute cap and came in at 23:13!

And there you have it. Almost a week of recap. Tonight’s WOD doesn’t look pretty but I’ll have to go and make the most of it. Need y’all to rally behind me for some support to get back to clean eating and discipline. I know I’ve been saying it for weeks now but like I said, I had my moment. It happened in a Kohl’s dressing room to be more specific, trying on clothes. And it left me in a blah mood for the weekend, but I snapped out of it and know I have to get my shit together and focus. Other than that, I’m being my AWESOME self. Have a super duper Tuesday and go be AWESOME for you!

Lazy and Sloppy

Hello there, I know it’s been a few days since I’ve checked in and to be honest I think I like bombarding you all on a less frequent basis. (Is that even a sentence?) I may go back to a more daily thing but for now, every couple of days is my new strategy. If you have been around for the long haul you would know I was a daily blogger. I was on top of everything, my check ins, my workouts, my EATING!

2013 however has been lazy and sloppy. I guess it just reflects my everyday which = LAZY and SLOPPY. I did the Whole30 like a champ and everyday after that has been one failed goal/plan after another. I commit, declare it to the world (aka this blog), do good for a day or two then stomp it to the ground until it no longer resembles the awesome shiny plan I had in mind. I really think in the end it’s just me burning out but trying to hold on to NOT burning out. I’ve also had quite a few absences at the BOOM Box and many days of sporadic, not healthy, junky eating. Overall I’m not overeating but I’m not eating well. Which is a small win, cause I LIKE TO EAT… ALOT! And of course that starts the vicious cycle of feeling like crap, being tired all of the time, not recovering as quickly, etc. It sucks! But it’s a ride that I can’t get off of lately. I’m not stuck, I’m just not letting go of the bad habits.

Since I slept in on Monday, I showed up for the 7pm class at CrossFit Boom. It was kind of nice. I was awake. My body wasn’t all tight and achy and I felt rested. The downside was that I felt like my day had already worn me out some so I wasn’t as fresh as I actually did feel.

4/29/13

Skill/Strength: 10min Handstand Work
I was the only one there for 7pm so it turned into Stephanie needs a PULL UP work. I’m down to the skinny little blue band for assistance. But when you take away that band, I got nothing. I don’t know what changes in my head that says I can’t do it but there is a switch hiding and I don’t know how to flip it. Hell I can’t even find it! I’m close. So close.

4/29/13 WOD. Big difference when I’m at the end of the day!

MetCon: Run 800m, 18 Hand Release Push Ups, 9 Hang Squat Clean to Thrusters 135/95#, Run 400m, 21 HRPU, 7 Hang Squat Clean to Thrusters 135/95#, Run 200m, 24 HRPU, 5 Hang Squat Clean to Thrusters 135/95#

Looks brutal, IS BRUTAL! For one thing that’s a lot of running I don’t like doing. Add to that that I’ve been MIA for a couple of days and eating like shit. UGH. And sure enough that measly 800m was killing me. At least Push Ups are something I do fairly ok. Next up, THRUSTERS! Before we got started Coach wanted me to stick with a weight where I would go UNBROKEN for the first set of 9. Geesh, I wasn’t sure, so we went with 75lbs. Although I wanted to drop the bar I did not! I fought through and completed the goal set before me! Too bad I had to run 400m after that. I was smoked. I couldn’t breathe. To be quite honest I was ready to puke. Thrusters take everything out of you So I walked, then jogged, then walked, then trotted and so forth. It’s only 400m but I was so over it. I started off the 21 HRPU strong but faded fast. My shoulders were shutting down fast. When it came to Thrusters I know Coach wanted me to go Unbroken but I could only do 3 before I dropped the bar. Finished with two more sets of 2. Holy cow I was tired. The 200m was worse than the 400. I pretty much couldn’t get more than a trot and mostly walked. As for the 24 HRPU, I tried doing sets of 6 but only did one set of 6 and slowed to sets of 3 or 4. It was make it or break it time for those last 5 Thrusters. I knew I couldn’t let go of the bar and after 3 I was so close to dropping it. I just let it hang in my hands, which by the way is a bad idea, but I couldn’t drop it. Busted out the last 2 reps without letting go. Time: 17:20 Not a good showing for me but I finished the work and finished on a good note.

4/30/13
I enjoyed the sleeping in so much, that I thought I’d give 7pm another go. Not sure if I’ll stick with 7pm because it does takes a good chunk of my evenings and my kids are super busy at the same time so I may try to do a combo of 5am and 7pm. The good thing about 5am is that my workout is completed before my day even gets started. The bad thing about 5am is that it is so freakin early! And I’ve been doing the EARLY workouts since Feb 2011. It wears thin after this long.

Skill/Strength: 2 Push Jerk EMOM for 10 minutes @70% of 1RM Push Press
As I typed that I realize that may look like a foreign language to some of you. I know a few years ago when I first ever looked into CrossFit that’s what steered me clear of ever looking further into it. So please if you have any questions on anything that looks like jibberish, feel free to ask.

I warmed up to 65lbs which seems really light cause it is really light but that’s 70% of my 95lb Push Press. Soooo away we went 2 reps every minute for 10 minutes. My Push Jerk timing is not always consistent so Coach had me really focusing on getting the timing down. I was trying to rush through and getting really sloppy. The work still gets done but not as efficiently. It was a little bit of a struggle to correct my problems. I could understand and feel what I was doing wrong but I was having a hard time correcting it. The last couple of rounds I finally got it under control. I know a Jerk PR is in the near future!

4/30/13 WOD

MetCon: HELL … not really, just for me though. 4 min AMRAP of: 5 HSPU 10 T2B -rest 1 minute 4 min AMRAP of: 15 KBS 2/1.5 10 Pullups -rest 1 minute 2 min ME DU
Since I can not do Handstand Push Ups yet I had to do them modified and my rep count doubled because of that. The modified version was to have my feet planted on the ground but against the wall. I then had to walk out with my hands a certain distance. Then lower till head touches ground and push back up. I sooooo couldn’t do this properly. It was awkward and I failed miserably. After I did my 10 reps it was off to Toes To Bar. Well I can do them one at a time so I started chipping away. My last 3 ended up being like 10 reps because I couldn’t get both feet to touch bar! I didn’t even get 1 round in, womp womp. After we rested it was on to 1.5 POOD KB Swings. Those I can do. Yay. But then it was Pull Ups. And I had a plan to use only the tiny blue band and I stuck with that plan but I had nothing in the tank from my upper body. NOTHING! I didn’t fall back on thicker bands, I just struggled through and managed 6 reps. Again not even ONE full round, double WOMP WOMP! All I had left going for me was Double Unders. I got to about 35 reps and my forearms were screaming. It was hard to just hold on to the rope. My hands were fatigued. And it was a LONG 2 minutes. I got 83 reps which is better than I thought I was going to get after the initial 35 but I had wanted 100+. This is the price I pay for eating poorly and being lazy. It will come back, I know it will. It’s just a matter of time and a matter of discipline.

Well that’s it for now folks. I already know tonight’s workout and already want to bail! But I know I can’t so I should be there at 7pm. Also if you are in the area, CrossFit Boom is moving to a shiny new location about a mile from the current box! 2401 Callender rd Suite 111 Mansfield ,TX 76063. We should start working out there starting this Monday, May 6th. There will still be FREE COMMUNITY WORKOUTS on Saturdays as well. Just check out crossfitboom.com for more info.

I hope everyone has been enjoying their week so far. And I hope it ends with a bang! If you’re not moving, start moving! Take a walk, move some weights, JUST GET THAT BLOOD FLOWING! If you’re eating like crap, STOP! Ya I’m talking to me too about the eating part! You know the drill. Make that step towards a healthier life. It’s so much better that way. Cause right know I feel like poop! And I hate it. So stopping hating life and start living and loving it. Go forth and BE AWESOME!!!

Everyday I’m STRUGGLIN!

At least lately. I know, I know. When is this girl going to have a good inspirational post. Something AWESOME and badass? No clue. I’m in this loop of chaos that I can’t get out of it. I have more off days than good days lately. And it’s like once I’m sleeping in or eating poorly I don’t want to get back to the program. It doesn’t help that I am doing absolutely nothing to keep on track during tournaments or unplanned events. I’m just going to blame it on the inconsistent weather we are having here in Texas. It’s driving me bonkers. Rainy, COLD, warm, cool, windy, COLD, hot, drizzly, COLD! It’s almost MAY and there is still COLD weather lingering. My brain can’t wrap around it! Or I can really just blame myself for getting stuck in this spiral of laziness.

The bulletproof coffee did give me that satiated feeling and energy boost but after I tried it at the full recommended dose it wasn’t so good. I’m struggling getting back to it. And after our whirlwind weekend I’m still trying to regroup. Then it’s off to another whirlwind weekend of more baseball! Don’t get me wrong. Baseball and my kids is my happy place. I love it and wouldn’t change it for the world. But for the purposes of health, fitness and this blog it’s really cramping my style! And the waistline is ever expanding. And I’m not a happy camper about it. If you’ve stuck around long enough you know I can be disciplined but I think my brain is broken.

As for missing the BOOM Box on Friday and Monday AND Tuesday – well my hands were broken for Friday and Monday. After those rips I got on Thursday I was done. There was no way I was going to comfortably do a workout and get work done. By Tuesday my hands were healing up fine. And it was a Power Clean day. But it was also a Pull Up day. I was still planning on going, just doing something other than Pull Ups but I had a kiddo wake me up not feeling so hot and I actually struggled going back to bed. Must be all the bad foods I’ve been eating. So when the time came to get up and get movin, there was just an alarm reset and back to snoozeville I went. I didn’t even hit SNOOZE. Just reset the alarm. So sad!

So I pick the coldest morning in April to actually get up and make an appearance at the box. 37° is not my idea of fun. But I’ve already missed 5 days in a row. So I’m itching for a good workout.

Skill/Strength: Push Press 5, 3, 1+ at 75%, 85% and 95% of 1RM.That’s 70lbs, 80lbs and 90lbs for me. The one good thing about 5 days rest is well it’s FIVE days rest and my shoulders were feeling good. Got warmed up and started my rep scheme. Woo I was feeling strong. Maybe I should be a slacker more often?!? Hehe. Got to 95% and did 4 reps. I knew I had at least 1 or 2 more, but my concentration broke and I was done. That’s the worst! One little extra thought comes through and I’m done. But 4 reps at 95% ain’t too shabby.

4/24/13 WOD

MetCon: Helllooooo Annie! Activating Superpowers. Cause shit that’s all I got. For those of you who don’t know Annie, it’s 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 reps of Double Unders and Butterfly Sit Ups. Those are about the only STRENGTHS that I have when it comes to CrossFit. Seriously my ONLY strengths. So frustrating but at least I do have that. 3,2,1 GO … I really was going for UNBROKEN in the first 50 DUs. I can do that many unbroken but not very often. I got to about 37 and had some trip ups in the last 10. Then chipped away at the Sit Ups. I can’t recall if it was during the 50 or the 40 of Sit Ups that I took my hoody off and that’s where I took too much time not working. But I was hot and flustered and well I should have taken care of that before the clock started! But after that, I just kept moving. I took a few short pauses during the Sit Ups but no LONG rests. Top time recorded for the BOX was in the 7:30 range so I was trying to at least come close. The last time I recorded myself doing Annie last summer was 8:40. I knew it was under 9 but over 8. I just wasn’t sure my exact time this morning though. My time today was 7:58! Dang it. If I had just sucked it up with my HOODY on I could have had a better time. At least I wasn’t worse from 9 months ago!

Happy Hump Day ladies and gents. Make it a great day. Well you know you should actually make it an AWESOME day. See you tomorrow, uh, I hope! Fingers crossed!

Drive

Want to, desire, dreams, etc. It all boils down to what makes you tick. What are your goals and what are you doing to make them come to fruition. I’m a lot of talk I know with a mixed bag of happy and negative. I do put in work thought. I do know I tend to come across negative all the time on this here blog but I can tell you I’m not always negative. I’ve gone through all of this before in some form or fashion too but I figure it doesn’t hurt to talk about it again. I have 3 boys that I’ve put my life into. And what kind of men will they grow up to be if I was always raining on their parade. Truth is I have a great life. My world is complete. I don’t really need a pull up to have a happier life. I don’t really need to squat 200+ pounds but I want to! I really want to. How bad do I want it though is another question. Not bad enough to work on that stuff for hours daily. Clearly I show up to the Boom Box almost everyday and clearly I have made progress but I’m not winning the CrossFit games because I finally got a pull up. I don’t have the time, drive or want to actually focus on a goal that big. My goal is to be fit and healthy. GOAL ACHIEVED.

The rest of it is me nitpicking myself. The shoulda, coulda, wouldas in life. For me it’s always been 8000 of those little vain thoughts that plague me regularly. (stretch marks, jiggle, cellulite) They bring/brought me down. The didn’t allow me to love me for me sometimes. It was so bad I used to let those things hold me back from wanting to work out in public. I think maybe because once I was lean and fit and naive to body image. Then I became a much larger me. I was never so obese that I gave up, but I definitely got heavy and have never been comfortable with myself since.

I’ve worked on my mental side a lot and I’m a different person now in a lot of ways. I don’t obsess over the scale anymore. I’m not trying to revert back to the young, skinny me either. I’ve come a long way letting those things go but I’m starting to think they will always be there in some form or fashion, because I sure would like to feel comfortable in a swim suit. I doubt I ever will. And no I’m not searching for the YOU LOOK GREAT surface compliments cause I do KNOW what I look like. I’m not hiding behind something only to be all “hey I LIED look at me.” I’m just letting y’all know I’m still haunted by body image but at the end of the day I am living healthier than ever. I’m stronger than ever. And I’m hopefully teaching my boys to live that way the best they can.

And currently I mostly just want to put in the work at CrossFit (even if I still suck at it), eat healthy and laugh a lot! Cause laughing is good for everyone. Go ahead make someone laugh. Watch some funny stuff on the youtubes. Enjoy life.

With that said. It was hard for me to enjoy life this morning. The workout was not my favorite. I could have slept in. It was pouring rain. It was cold. And it was Muscle Ups… aka PULL UPs for those of us who don’t have MUs. Thrusters. Bleh and Toes To Bar! Go back to bed!

But nooooo…. I knew if I slept in on my weaknesses then how the hell am I going to get any better. So I dragged in. The best part of the morning was Deadlift work! Woooo.

Skill/Strength: 3, 3, 3+ @ 70%, 80% and 90% of our 1RM. For me it was 150lbs, 170lbs, and 195lbs. My hands are weak, my grip is crap. I don’t know why I have such a low tolerance to pain in my hands. Needless to say I did fine working up to my last set. And 195lbs is not longer HARD. But holy heckola it hurts my hands. I’m confident I could do more reps but my hands are cringing in pain. I hold on for 6 reps. I was hoping for 4 so I felt A-OK!

4/18/13 WOD

MetCon: 3 rounds of 3 Muscle Ups, 8 Thrusters (115lbs/75lbs) and 13 TTB. For me it was 9 Pullups instead of MUs. Ugh. I have the lonely green band set up because that’s my progress. And for a second I thought I only had to do 3 reps. It’s on the board 3 reps. Then realized oh shit, I must do 9! I did sets of 3 and my first two sets were great. My last set I struggled. I got to the barbell for Thrusters and pretty much wanted to quit. I did ONE and dropped the bar. Still not sure why but I did. Then I did 3, dropped the bar and did 4 before moving on. I KNEW I could do TTB so I approached them like I did for the Open. Get up there, get it done, drop. Get right back up, get it done, drop and so forth. It worked. Although 13 drops is not fun. And then it was back to Pull Ups for round 2. Coach had already pulled the blue band for me and set it up because my last 3 Pull Ups were horrible but I OPTED to go for green only! Look at me! Who knew I would make that decision. I was going along and got 3, then I had that crunchy pain feeling. My right hand was ripping.

I changed my hand position a little to salvage it the best I could and fought through. Onto Thrusters and this time I was going to go unbroken. At least I told myself that and it worked! Round 2 of Thrusters = Success. But now it was time to get on the bar again for TTB. And I chugged along one at a time. Then the left hand started to rip. And now I was just hurting. But I still had one more round of Pull Ups. I went for green band only AGAIN but could only muster 1 Pull Up with my hands falling apart. So I took a pause and got that blue band in the mix. It was much easier but my hands were hurting. Got to Thrusters and oh I didn’t want to drop the bar but I did after 3 reps. Dang it! Picked it back up and knocked out the last 5. Oh how I was dreading TTB. My hands were not happy. And I managed to knock out 10 in what seemed like good time. It was the last three that took me over 3 minutes to accomplish. I coudn’t help but focus on my wounded palms. I got a lot of NO REPS because I have a dumb left foot that doesn’t want to touch the bar! But finally after 20+ grueling minutes I finished. Done son. Can I go back to bed? Time: 21:33.

I’m tired and achy and my hands hurt. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. But this gloomy cold weather has got to go. I’m in TEXAS, it should be blistering hot already. I’m trying to overcome my Eeyore syndrome but today it is hard. I’m looking for the AWESOME I promise. So go be AWESOME yourself and LAUGH!

Hard to Focus

Life is busy. My life is crazy busy. I’m having a hard time staying focused on everything! In the end we manage just fine, having a good time in our world of chaos so that’s a good thing but my blogging falls behind! Maybe it’s better for me to be a little less in your face, then you don’t get sick of me 😀

As I’m trying to recap in my head 5 seconds before I type I can’t even remember what happened on FRIDAY! Thank goodness I take pics of the whiteboard or I might forget all together. But let me first talk about my EATING to PEFORM! I did really good during the week. Had some tweaks to make but overall hit the marks I needed to hit. But it was a big ol’ fail for the weekend! I wouldn’t say I didn’t eat too much or not enough but I didn’t eat balanced and I didn’t eat clean so 1 week wasted! I know, it’s not WASTED completely but I’m not gonna lie, eating to perform is not an easy task for me. A lot of food to be taking in and forget about planning when you are gone the whole day.

“Bulletproof” style

As of yesterday I’m trying out my coffee “bulletproof” style. I say style because I didn’t buy the UPGRADED coffee beans and I’m not using the MCT oil. If you don’t know what bulletproof coffee is then please click HERE to read more. Pretty much this is supposed to make life much more awesome and help me get those fats in that are hard to consume! Coffee, Grass Fed Butter and MCT oil is the magic concoction and so far so good. I was feeling pretty bleh yesterday and I did half the suggested portions. So I was feeling a little less than excited. But today I feel much more amped on it and alert. I had two separate servings of 8oz of coffee with 1tbs of KerryGold Butter and Liquid Coconut Oil (93% MCTs). It’s a lil different but not too shabby in the end. Going keep this up and see if I notice anything grand in the next few weeks.

4/12/13 WOD
Friday’s WOD was an 18 minute AMRAP team WOD. Probably the longest 18 minutes ever! It consisted of PULL UPs and Med Ball Sit-ups! BLEH! After a few rounds, my triceps were strained and dying. By the end they had died and my forearms were on their own deathwalk! It was miserable. But my partner Kristina stuck with it and we got 9 rounds + 5 reps. Not too bad for the pair of us!

4/12/13 WOD

4/13/13 Community WOD
As most of you know I do enjoy the community WODS, sometimes there is new folks, sometimes out of towners and sometimes it’s just a handful of us regulars but they always seem to be fun. I don’t know that I can say this time was fun! Hehe.

Teams of 3
5 rounds of 1 minute KB Swings, 1 minutes Overhead Plate Shuttle Run, 1 minute rest. YAY FUN! NOT!

Our team had 4 so two of us did the same movement together. While each of the other people were on the other station. That 1 minute rest station was NICE. The shuttle run NOT NICE at all. We took total reps completed for the final score. The way we did the 2 person movement was to split the difference of our final rep count. So I think I got 180 and Tristan got 186 so we said we had 183 reps. I think that was pretty fair in the end. Overall our team came in 2nd with 472 reps.

Since that went by so quickly Coach had us do DEATH by AIR SQUATS! We have never done that before and by 10 minutes he figured that it would go on forever so at the 10 minute mark he made us double up. instead of 10 reps we had to do 20 and at the 11 minute mark we had to do 22 reps. Well that gets you much faster and I only made it through 24 reps. That’s 111 squats.

4/16/13 WOD
I took Monday off. 6 days in a row and 1 rest day wasn’t enough so I took 2 rest days and low and behold I come back to a burpee, run, pull up WOD. Are you freaking kidding me. I wish I had the energy to wake up on Monday morning then I might have slept in this morning! Ok probably not, my weaknesses are definitely running and pull ups!

Skill/Strength: 75 Hollow Rocks, 75 Superman Rocks
I’m so much better at the Superman Rocks. My joke is that my belly is what allows me to rock so well! And more than 10 Hollow Rocks pretty much sucks!

4/16/13 WOD

MetCon: 90 seconds Max Effort of Burpees, Red gate SPRINT, 10 Bar MUs (but for me 30 pullups)
The Burpess. UGH! I got 25 in the 90 seconds. I’m sure I could have squeezed a few more in but my mind was already dreading the run. The red gate and back is about 3/4 of a mile. It’s not an exact but definitely close to it. Good thing is I didn’t stop the whole time. Most runs I stop and walk at some point. Some if that’s the one positive I can pull then that’s what I’ll focus on! Still slow though Got back to the bar and my lovely band assistants. Coach wanted me to do Kipping Pull Ups with Blue Band. Got 1 and it went downhill from there. So I moved up to Green Band and got 2. Woooo. Then I was getting nowhere. So I doubled up with the green and blue band and chipped away. Time: 18:09! Man those Pull Ups took forever!

After a few minutes of rest, Coach wanted me to do a handful of extra pull ups with just the green band. With a little rest and no pressure of the clock, I did 5 in a row. Woooo! The flip side is now I HAVE to use the green band only. No more double banding. It’s bittersweet. It’s progress but still bittersweet!

Hopefully tomorrow is a good CLEAN kind of workout and no more pull ups or running! Hehe, doubtful but hopeful all at the same time 🙂 Have a fantabulous Tuesday. And don’t be shy, go out there and be AWESOME!

Made it!

Woooo I woke up on a Thursday morning to go workout! Typically Thursday is a rest day for me because it was OLY Class day and 5 am was not an option. But starting last week Thursdays became available for regular workouts and of course the first go round I slept in! Not today, Jack!

Eat to Perform
So far I’ve also been a champ on eating to perform! At least getting 90-95% on target. Probably a lil closer but I don’t want to do the math. I have also just started getting used to drinking my coffee black so now I’m considering going bulletproof by adding the butter and the MCT oil. I’m not well versed in what it’s all about yet but once I get it all researched I’ll share some more. If you already do this and have seen some positive OR negative things, PLEASE PLEASE let me know. I think it will help me hit my FAT intake target much better. I finally restocked on coconut flakes as well and if I would remember to pack them in my lunch I’d probably be better off!

The eating test is ON starting NOW. From NOW till Wednesday next week we will be NON-STOP all over the place with little to no time to cook, eat, breathe, etc. So I gotta be crafty with the food and not let LIFE get in the way. And even more than life getting in the way, I need my slacker side of my brain to co-operate with the disciplined side of my brain and take care of business! If anyone wants to just cook for me and deliver for the next 6 days, it’d be greatly appreciated!

Today’s WOD
Skill/Strength: Free Handstand Holds and/or Pistol work
Pistols are a super weakness for me and I should work on them but my IT band has been on the mend. Hopefully with the cleaner eating I will clear that up. I opted for Free Handstands. Once upon a time I could hold handstands, not forever, but for a long time. Oh to be young or to have just stuck with it! I can still easily get upside down but we use the wall regularly and that has become my safety net. It’s nice to work on Handstands today because I don’t typically do this on my free time. I managed to get a few seconds of freestanding, which I guess is better than NO seconds. Just one more thing to add to my list of mini goals!

4/11/13 WOD

MetCon: 4 rounds of 4 Back Squats (225lbs, 135lbs), 10 One Arm KB Snatch (1.5pood/1pood), and 16 lunges
As I was warming up to 135 lbs I was thinking this is heavy! And it felt heavy. It’s about 82% of my 1RM. Coach was confident I could do the weight for all the rounds and I really wanted the RX so I did it. But I wasn’t sure about the 1 POOD Snatch. I know I can do it but not sure if I can do all the reps in good time. I still don’t have the best timing when it comes to KB Snatch and I still got bruises on my forearms from the workout but I do feel I did better overall. There’s not much to say about the Lunges except they smoke you just in time for the Back Squats! And boy was I smoked. I spent too much time contemplating if my legs were ready for the Squats. I did the first and last round of Squats UnBroken but I racked the weight and split up the reps for the 2nd and 3rd rounds. I knew I wasn’t moving fast but at the same time I wasn’t really stopping except for the moments right before the squats. It was a slow but good butt whoopin! Hahah. SLOW, a sub 10 minute workout! I guess SLOW isn’t the best word, but a heavy squat for me takes some time to focus. Time: 9:35.

Giveaway
Also I have a little Facebook bribery/giveaway going on. Head on over to my FB page, LIKE me and share me with your friends. Tell you friends to like me and comment telling me who sent them over. When and IF I get to 200 likes…. BIG IF I know, then I will select a lucky fan and their referral person to each win a pair of my handy dandy AWESOME socks. You know you want ’em!

So go right now, click right HERE and like me. Then share idrankthecfkoolaid with all the people! Have a great THURSDAY, the weekend is in sight! And you know the drill – BE AWESOME!

Move, Move, Movin’ Along

It’s only day 3 of my magnified view of my eating habits as a result of coming across EAT TO PERFORM. So far so good for the most part. I did realize this morning that I was calculating my pork belly all wrong therefore I didn’t hit the recommended fat intake I needed for the past two days. Granted I was probably closer to those levels than I have been in the past. So it’s not a wash or a screw up. I did see my error, fixed it and now moving on. I now know for today that I need to get about 30-40 more grams of FAT in me. Woooo! It’s not hard but it’s not easy either. I do, however, feel confident I will plan this out just fine.

After 2 full days of clean eating and being dialed into this new macronutrient perspective I really have zero cravings for snacks. I’ve been here done that before but it still shocks me how simple it is! No cravings. No bloated feelings. Etc.! It’s crazy that I’m insane enough to stop eating clean. Yet I fall off the grid frequently! Now if I can just stick with it. My true test will be this weekend when we will be gone for a good part of the weekend for baseball. I’m gonna have to step up my own game plan!

Also on a small side note, I’ve been using this site www.nutridiary.com to log my macronutrients. I really haven’t delved into the site as a whole but it shows you a daily analysis of your Carbs, Fats, and Proteins after you’ve entered your foods. If the food you eat is not in their system, there is an option to save your own foods. It’s not the most eye appealing but it’s FREE and so far helps me keep track without having to carry around a notebook. So just that little aspect of the site is helping me out ALOT. I’m sure it offers more but I seriously don’t have time to figure that shit out!

One more note: FRESH HOT OUT OVEN EGGPLANT = AWESOMENESS
but NEXT DAY MICROWAVED is just okay

BOOM BOX
This feel good feeling from eating better even helps move me along to show up for the Boom Box even when I REALLY REALLY don’t want to show up! For instance, this morning = cold and running. My idea of sleeping in sounds so much better.

Skill/Strength: 10 minute Double Under / TRIPLE UNDER work, 3 x 5 Pendlay Rows As Heavy As Possible
If you have DUs down, it’s time to work on Triple Unders. I haven’t checked the CrossFit Main Site but I have read amongst the social media networks that TU’s have shown up so it’s only natural it’s something we should learn. And guess what??!!?? I got ONE! Woooo. I was oh so close 789797 times but I finally busted one out. Now how I get more than one or even string them together is another task.

Pendlay Rows are getting easier as we do them more often. They truly were awkward when they were introduced to us a few months ago but now I feel I’m getting better. 3 x 5 AHAP was 85lbs for me. Not bad and I think next time I will go up in weight.

MetCon: 15 minutes of – 2 minutes MAX Double Unders, 1 mile run, MAX DU’s with left over time.
Well it’s cold outside and drizzly/rainy and miserable. And I don’t like running. AND I’m a horrible runner with NO aspirations to be a better runner. But that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part is a tiny little muscle in the sides of my upper arm fatigued super fast and I was struggling stringing together DUs. UGH. I got 95 in 2 minutes before I headed out the door for the 1 mile run. For a lot of you out there 1 mile is easy. Once upon a time it was much easier for me but not currently with my chunky butt recovering food addict self.

With cold wind and rain blowing in your face, one would think I would run faster to hurry up and get inside but there isn’t a FAST button on me. So there I went … slow and slower. More of a trot actually. It took me well over TOO LONG to finish the run. Got back with less than a minute to get DUs in. I was only able to get 32 in for a total rep count of 127. Sigh. But I did get a TRIPLE UNDER so who cares about running!

It’s HUMP DAY, hope y’all have a good one! Go on now …. BE AWESOME!

My hands hurt :/

Just recently my hands have been really sore. Not just sore on my callouses from hanging on the bar but sore in my palms, sore in my grip, etc. After talking with coach he suggested getting a rubber band and wrap it around my fingers and work with opening and closing my hand. I’m gonna give that a try for the rest of the week and see if it helps out. I know with time the pain will go away eventually but I’m hoping this helps work out the little muscles in my hand.

In other news, I did pretty well hitting my Eat To Perform targets and I had a sense of relief that I can do this. I CAN eat all this dang food and all the fat pretty easily. What was hard to eat was my Post Workout Meal this morning as it’s about double of what I’m used to eating and lately I have slipped off the PWO Meal anyways. They do suggest Sweet Potato Recovery powder from Simply Pure Nutrients that I may look into because I don’t know that I can always shove that much food down or that I even have the time too regularly. Just add water and I can drink some of those carbs! If anyone has tried it, let me know what you think about it.

Food Front
So with all this eating and adding FAT I finally got in the kitchen to get ahead at least a day so I wasn’t stressing out about what to eat. I also finally bit the bullet and purchased a digital scale. I’ve had an old fashion cheapo one and I never felt like it was accurate but I wasn’t really ever concerned about getting exact breakdowns of my food. With the digital I can easily track grams, ounces, ml which helps me a lot in trying to get an accurate count of my Carbs, Proteins and Fats.

So I cooked up chicken and beef, measured and portioned it all out. I also quick boiled some aparagus, broiled some eggplant, baked more sweet potato and got some kale prepped for salad. I’m also going to share with you how I cooked up my eggplant and a couple of chicken strips. I didn’t originally plan on this so I don’t have pictures of the food in the making. But if I wait to do that properly I may never post about it.

Broiled Eggplant
Super simple to cook and a vegetable I’ve only cooked once. For some reason I’m not drawn to eggplant so I rarely buy it and if I do buy it, it sits in the fridge till it’s bad. So this time when I saw two perfectly purple eggplants and bought them, I was determined to cook them up. And I’m not in the moment of life where I can take time to experiment a whole lot. Turns out this veggie is really easy to cook. Found this on NomNom Paleo. http://nomnompaleo.com/post/4739682522/broiled-zucchini-or-eggplant. She used Zucchini and Globe Eggplant. I’m not quite sure what GLOBE eggplants are but I just bought your typical eggplant that’s purple and odd shaped. I’m not as food savvy as MRS. NOM NOM but I can figure some things out on my own, haha.

Easy Breezy Eggplant

Really easy! I promise. Preheat oven to BROIL. Grab a cookie sheet. Line it with foil. Drizzle oil on to cookie sheet. Add salt and pepper to your oil. Cut your eggplant into even slices. Place on oil coated cookie sheet THEN flip eggplant so you can get oil and seasoning on both sides. Broil for 8 -10 minutes, flip halfway through. Once you remove the eggplant from oven you can add a little vinegar or lemon OR BOTH and you have scrumptious eggplant. We even tried coconut aminos and that was wonderful too! I’m hoping it holds up after sitting in the fridge all night.

Fried Chicken Strips
If you have ever fried anything you should be pretty capable to concoct something and season it to your likings. If you’re not a cook or scared of stepping out of step by step instructions, let me tell you, it’s easy to just do whatever. And that’s what I did with some chicken strips that I had.

I took the chicken strips and rubbed chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and lemon pepper all over (use your favorite seasonings). I then took some egg white and put in one dish. And set up another dish with coconut flour, pepper and salt. I made sure the flour and seasonings were mixed well. Take your seasoned chicken, dip and coat it in the egg whites, then dip and coat in your coconut flour. I went ahead and took coated strip and double coated it. While I was prepping everything I had a pan heating up at Medium Heat with 2TBS Coconut Oil. By the time I was done coating my chicken strips the oil was hot enough. Place the chicken in the pan and let cook a couple of minutes (no touching) then flip after 2-3 minutes and let cook through on other side for 2-3 minutes. Really tasty fresh, not as tasty microwaved next day. But a quick and simple protein with some “cheat meal” flare.

Not the prettiest shot. I’m no photographer but it tasted yummy!

So now that I have my kitchen in work mode, I’m hoping I can just keep things rolling along! But now it’s time for the BOOM Box Recap. It’s short and sweet today.

Skill/Strength: 5, 5, 5+ @ 65%, 75% and 85% of 1RM Push PressLast week we found our 1RM Push Press and sadly even though I felt like I could have got more weight up, I only got 95lbs. So using that I was going for 60lbs, 70lbs and 80lbs. My warm up sets and my first round weren’t hard but everything was hurting in an achey kind of way. Finally at 70lbs it felt much better. Got to 80lbs and busted out 10 reps! I went for 11 and failed. Now my arms were really dead! It felt good though to get those 10 reps.

4/9/13 WOD

MetCon: 3X – 3 min AMRAP of 5 Burpees and 5 Knees to Elbows, 1 minute rest
3 rounds of that. UGH. It might not be so bad if I was good at KTE. But I am not. I did start off strong in regards to getting my knees up but by the end it was just get knees as high as possible. I dropped after each rep of KTE because my hands were on fire! Burpees are burpees. You just gotta do them. I ended up with a total of 9 rounds + 1 for all the rounds. So that’s averaging 3 rounds per round! Makes sense right?

It’s TUESDAY folks. And I’m already ready for Friday! That’s a problem 😀 Ah well, I’ll just have to chug on through. Hope y’all have a great day and of course BE AWESOME!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: