Food

The 21-Day Sugar Detox … already stumbled Days 1-3

Hello Hello… Today is my rest day so I typically don’t show up in the blogosphere on Wednesdays but I thought today I’d share only what’s been going on with this sugar detox.

WHY am I doing this? Ate like shit for most of September. Gained weight but more importantly feel like crapola physically and in a mental blur. I had positive effects the first time I did this back in May. So let’s give it a go and hope I kick this junk food rut I’ve been in.

If you’ve been following along the past two days, then you have an idea of what’s going on. If you haven’t been following along then welcome to Day 3 of my sugar detox. Overall I’ve started off on not the best foot. Mostly because I know I’m not getting enough veggies in, but that’s my personal opinion. I have not consulted with anyone other than myself. That’s the best way, right?!?

Instant rambling: Now I do have sweet tooth for refined sugars, organic sugars, fruit sugars, sugar that falls out of they sky if that was plausible. I LOVE SUGAR. I always have. It’s sad. I probably could eat cookies, fruit, cakes and whatever else all day and not MISS REAL FOOD! Mentally that is. Physically my body would hate me forever. I’ve had sugar binges and although my taste buds are happy and my mental state is fluffy… it’s just that. FLUFFY because it’s been inflamed and making me WONKY! Once I eat real food I feel the relief, the satisfaction of being full and then the disappointment in myself for binging. A little extreme? Maybe to some of you, but I need discipline in order to be successful in having a healthy and fit life.

Now before you go preaching to me about enjoying life and what not, let me be clear: I AM NOT SAYING I WON’T EVER ENJOY A TREAT OR DESSERT EVER AGAIN. I’m not saying that life should be boring and bland. I’m saying, I WANT A HEALTHY LIFE! I’m saying THAT FOOD REWARDS ARE NOT THE WAY. We live in a society based around social eating. Food is fuel. It can be tasty fuel but it needs to be healthy clean fuel. Living in a Paleo world for almost a year now has been quite satisfying. Living in a sugar free world is a little harsh for me. I will always eat fruit but in moderation and not during this 21-day Sugar Detox.

Day 2
Pardon my ramble, that happened out of the blue and as always I try to not delete, rewrite, delete rewrite. I just leave it as is. But I did enough reviewing to at least title it! So anyways, I started Day 2 with a food “scare” because I ate Acorn Squash for breakfast! Found out it was on the NO FOOD list but then realized since I’m an ATHLETE it was ok to eat a little bit so I was in the clear. For lunch I had Chicken, Mashed Cauliflower, Dill Pickles and some Tomatoes. For a snack later I had some bacon – yummo.

Got home, got a meatloaf cooking for the family and prepped other foods to cook after football practice. Then it went to shit and a hand basket. One of my kids got a banged up arm during practice. Got home; he was still in a lot of pain; I thought it looked bad and my mom freak out mode took him to the ER to make sure it wasn’t broken. Which left us not getting home till close to 1 a.m. So I thought I would just suck it up go home and sleep even though I was starving. Turns out I’m a glutton for punishment. Ernie had dropped us off at the ER and then made a run to Chic-fil-a because he was hungry. At the time I was not hungry and I had the will power to not eat bad foods. He had bought extra food knowing Justice and himself would probably still be hungry when we left the ER. He was smart in thinking this but I could no longer hold out. I ate 1 nugget hoping that would just get me home. It didn’t. Turns out I ate about 6. I KNOW I KNOW, not the end of the world but I’m just staying true and admitting I did it. And I just want to keep it honest and real. Fortunately the nuggets aren’t heavily breaded and it’s still protein. Better to eat some nuggets than to dive into a chocolate cake or something!!!

Day 3
Didn’t start off with a bang either. So far no foods, only water and mint tea. I have steak, spinach, broccoli and mashed cauliflower for lunch. I plan to have a roast chicken for dinner with some super greens and not sure what else. And I have bacon and eggs for a snack. I may swing by the store and get some avocados as well to add some fat to my day. We’ll see how it goes. I was way better prepared in May when I did this. All of this flying by the seat of my pants is hard. But I’ve been strong. We have a fridge full of fruit at home for the kids to take to lunch and snack on before football and I have steered clear. I just have to get this whole planning thing buttoned up so I can have proper meals.

Anyhow. Thanks for checking in. I know it wasn’t uplifting and super exciting but if you’re debating the sugar detox, doing it now or can relate in any way with whatever your life goals are then at least you have some insight to what one silly girl goes through. LIFE DOES GET IN THE WAY – how you deal with it is what is important! KEEP ON TRUCKIN! and BE AWESOME!

 

 

Overhead Squats I GOT YOU!

I’m so feeling the pain in my hamstrings after yesterdays Romanian one legged kettlebell deadlifts. They are sore and tight! Nothing like a good dose of the BOOM Box to help me forget the pain!

Skill/Strength: Press 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 Starting at a lower weight moving up to heavy. Being that my 1 RM is 70lbs and I’m stuck there FOREVER, my goal was to finish at 70lbs. After some warm up reps I jumped to 50lbs and although that felt rather light I know moving up will get ya. By the time I got to 65lbs I was feeling strong. I got this. Until the freakin 70lb set. Houston we have a NO GO! UGH! So frustrating.

10/2/12 WOD

MetCon: 5 rounds of 1 minute OHS (55lbs), 1 minute Double Unders, 2 minute rest. The RX for OHS was 65lbs which in hindsight I probably should have done. BUT, the OHS gets me good in the wrists and it HURTS soooo bad. I feared by the 5th round I wouldn’t be able to even hold the bar up. Well my fears were wrong. Last time I worked on OHS Coach had me work on bringing my hands closer in on the bar and that helped a lot. Little did I know that would be my saving grace in all 5 rounds of today’s MetCon. My wrists were fatigued but not in excruciating pain. OHS I have conquered you mentally and physcially…. WOOHOOO… until you get real heavy, sigh! I believe I got 15, 13, 17, 16, 17 for my rounds with the OHS. Doing DUs right after OHS really sucked. My shoulders were tired and I didn’t want to spin the rope around. It took me a little bit to get in a groove and get used to jumping with my OLY shoes. I’m sure I could have done a few more DUs with my regular shoes but then maybe I wouldn’t have been as strong with the OHS. I’ll take the OHS reps over DUs. I believe I got 40, 50, 41, 39, 37 on my DUs, but I can’t recall perfectly. Score: 285. Looks pretty weak amongst the other scores but they all did singles. I didn’t earn an RX either by going 10lbs lighter in the weight so there I sit with my sad 285. I’m ok with it though. I didn’t drop the bar once which I’m notorious for!

21-Day Sugar Detox – Day 2
Yup I survived Day 1. I wasn’t sure that I would. I’m probably hitting the actual water intake that I need because I’m chugging a shit ton every time I want a piece of fruit or something junky. I was struggling on the way home from work yesterday but my Dad’s house had a nice little surprise, GREEN bananas! Thank you baby Jesus, I’m allowed to have a green tipped banana and I needed it! Dinner was Roasted Chicken, Mashed Cauliflower and Spinach Salad. I didn’t manage to get in any salad I just wasn’t hungry.

This morning I had 2 eggs and some Acorn Squash with a dash of cinnamon. So delightful! Then I get to work, review the program and realize I’m not to have ACORN SQUASH! WTH?

ACORN SQUASH IS ON THE NO FOODS LIST!!!

I thought I knew this. Clearly I did not and clearly it was too good to be true! I did know that you could have 1/2 sweet potato if you were an Athlete (hehehe, yes I consider myself an Athlete), so I followed up on that and relearned that I could choose from the “Dense Carb” list and whew I’m in the clear. I will however have to forgo the rest of the squash that I had set up for lunch! Chicken and Cauliflower for lunch. I really need to add some green food. I will for dinner. I must!

And that wraps up my Tuesday. I hope everyone is having a fine day. Make it AWESOME, BE AWESOME!

Making It Happen

You know it! It’s Day 1 of the 21-Day Sugar Detox in my lil world. It’s long overdue! September was full of eating FAILs and hardknocks to our typically uneventful life. But we persevere like we always do, like we are made to do. Thank goodness I stayed true to my workouts! Time to get back on track with the FOOD!

21-Day Sugar Detox – Day 1
So here we are October 1 – Can you believe it’s October? It’s great, the weather is instantly cooler, the RANGERS are in the playoffs and the holidays are right around the corner ツ AND today I start my Sugar Detox. If you’ve been with me since at least May then you know I have made it through with only one hiccup on Mother’s Day. This time around I aim to not have any slip ups and just do it and do it right! I LOVE LOVE LOVE sugar in all forms and although I’m not the junkie I once was but I haven’t been quite the saint either. I know this first week may not be easy for me because the past two weeks were filled with all sorts of nonsense in regards to food. You all reading shouldn’t be affected but those that know me personally may get a short tempered, angry person in their face. I apologize in advance!!! So far for the day 3 eggs over medium, 1 cup of Mint Tea, lots o’ water. No veggies cause I’m lame and didn’t prepare properly but I have veggies for lunch and will have some for dinner too.

10/1/12 WOD
Skill/Strength: 4 x 10 Single Leg KB RDL AHAP. What is a Single Leg KB RDL? Kettlebell Romanian Deadlift. The objective was to do 10 on each leg for 4 sets and move up to as heavy as possible. I started off at 1 POOD and that wasn’t too bad. I have pretty good balance so that helps out. The thing I don’t have is good grip. It’s weak! But because I didn’t struggle at 1 POOD, I moved up to 1.5 POOD.

I’m am stronger when my right leg is planted but this started taking a tole on my hip. By the 4th set I was struggling and my left leg felt much stronger in the end. I’ve done this movement with no weight many times so I know with added weight I will feel this in the morning. I’m scared!

10/1/12 WOD

MetCon: TABATA of Jumping Lunges, Handstand Shoulder Touches and B2B Air Squats. TABATA just seems EVIL! TABATA hurts! TABATA will in the end KICK YOUR ASS! but TABATA is good for you whether you like it or not. TABATA is 20 seconds of one movement, 10 secs rest over and over for 8 rounds. You are supposed to count your reps and the round with the least reps is you score. Well we started with Jumping Lunges and somewhere from the beginning to the middle I started cheating doing Stepping Lunges. This was not my intention but I was called out on it which really sucked because 1. I was doing them wrong and 2. I didn’t realize I was doing them wrong and 3. Well I sucked. I ended up with a score of 8 for Jumping Lunges. My LEGS were dead. We moved onto Handstand Shoulder Touches during the 10 second rest. I opted for Handstand Rocking because prior to the whole TABATA start I could only manage to get one shoulder touched. I couldn’t complete a rep on my left side. So I modified. Thank goodness our legs got some rest but this is a butt whoopin on the good ol shoulders! I started off strong but fell to 10 reps for my last three sets. Ah well. Our legs were punished once again when we hit those air squats. My true pain came from HOLDING the squat in the 10 sec rest period though. About halfway through my right hip was just dead. Holding the squat made it burn. I was done. I was trying to keep my reps up but ended with a score of 9 on the Air Squats 😦

To WODapalooza or Not To WODapalooza? That is the Question! A great BOX in Temple, TX – CrossFit DSP is sponsoring the 2nd annual WODapalooza. I competed in this last year with only 2 months CrossFitting under my belt. It was a blast! Now it’s a 2 day event and I’m torn on whether I should bite the bullet and compete! Registration started today, hopefully some spots are still available by the time I make my decision!

That’s it y’all! It’s Monday. Make it great! Be AWESOME and it’s not too late to start the sugar detox. No one made it a LAW to start on the first of the month. Just start!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

At last it’s Friday! I went to bed last night feeling the hurt from the Bear Complex yesterday monrning. It’s an all body take down. I woke up feeling the hurt even more. I wasn’t sure all my limbs would make it out of bed but thankfully they did. I wanted nothing more but to crawl back into bed and hibernate.

As my story typically goes… YOU Know I got up and dragged my sore ass body into the BOOM Box. What awaited us was Muscle UP Work, Double Unders and Running that is if I can make it through the warm up, which involved Bear Crawls, which typically are fine in my book. My arms didn’t want to hold me up at all. Worst Bear Crawls EVER, then inch worms right after that?!? What a cruel cruel world! 😉

9/7/12 WOD

Skill Strength: Muscle Up Development
Let me first state, I can’t do a pull up, I surely can’t do a Muscle Up but working on technique never hurts. In my head I will pretend I am awesome at the MUs. So we work on lowered rings with bands and proceeded to learn and understand what our HIPS should be doing from a horizontal position… please hold your jokes for later. After a while of that we worked on being balled up and holding the position right before you would actually press up to a finished muscle up. Put it all together and you have the workings of a Muscle Up. And to top it off I found pics on the interwebs to illustrate, sorta, kinda!

You use a handy dandy band for assistance.

We were a little lower to the ground but you get the idea, bring hips up to rings.

Ball up and end like this.

MetCon: 15 Double Unders UNBROKEN, 200m Sprint
Well Well Well, Something I’m pretty sure I can do but ya just never know. I’ve clearly explained before that when I’m ever trying to get MAX DUs in a time frame, the shit hits the fan. My brain turns to mush when the clock starts counting down. Getting 15 DUs unbroken shouldn’t be a problem and thankfully it WAS NOT a problem. My biggest problem is that I’m a slow ass runner. I SUCK at running. I know I say I’m horrible at a lot of things and mostly that’s my disappointment in myself talking and you all get a dose of it DAILY but I know I’m getting better in the long run. When I say I SUCK at running, I really do. I’ve had progress and what not but I’m not a runner, mentally or physically and I don’t aspire to be EVER. If only I had some mental drive to run faster then maybe I would have been more successful on this MetCon. I did push on my last sprint so I broke that mental barrier for the morning but it’s hard to do. Time 4:39

Kid Front News
I had a big KID win last night by making sweet potato hash and topping it with spaghetti meat sauce. Justice gave it a 10 and compared to the zucchini noodles which was only given a 6. Still not bad but preferred the SWEET POTATO! And so EASY to make. No pics but I”ll give a quick breakdown: Cook you up some GRASSFED Ground Beef… season away, me I use: salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder. Sometimes I add tomatoes, onion, real garlic, mushrooms, etc but we were in a hurry last night. Add beef to already warming up SUGAR FREE, ORGANIC PASTA SAUCE (I can’t recall the brand I use at this moment, but if you really want to know just comment below please, I’ll have it later today.) While that’s going on, peel and shred up however many sweet potatoes you need. Sautee in coconut oil or Bacon Fat till soft. Pour meat sauce on top of potato hash, Add a side salad. You’re done! I have no pictures because I was not planning on sharing, how rude of me! It was late, post football practice, kids starving, fuel was needed… NO TIME for blog ideas!

Sorry but one more kid note… Jonas took some baby spinach to school and had some friends inquire as to what it was, it’s seriously a sad day that kids don’t know what fruits and vegetables are out there. Shoot I know there’s a ton of adults who don’t know as it is but geesh, spinach people, spinach. One of his friends tasted it… it’s raw, no dressing, seasoning or anything and they thought it was LOVELY and couldn’t believe it came as is! Seriously, it blows my mind! And to go with that is a lovely 70’s Saturday Morning PSA that I hope y’all enjoy!

Hope y’all have a super duper weekend. Community WOD at the BOOM Box tomorrow if you want to come out and have some fun! Hopefully it’s still in the 60s at 9am! So no excuse of being too HOT! If you can’t BE AWESOME with us just make sure you are AWESOME in general.

Simple Cooking with KALE

Taking notes from fellow bloggers (Martha, Jennifer), I’m making a small attempt at being more HELPFUL than being more about ME! Heheh but you can’t have AWESOME without ME so hopefully I take on this task without the ramble. Ok I ramble that’s a given, you’ll just have to follow along as best you can! It’s my rest day from the good ol’ BOOM Box so why not post a recipe. I haven’t shared a recipe in quite a while because frankly we get busy in our house and food, although delicious, gets boring and repetitive.

For my dedicated readers you know I rarely talk about my work life, maybe not at all now that I think about it. I am a graphic designer for a housewares company, Dexas International. We manufacture/produce all sorts of kitchenware, gadgets, etc. No this isn’t an ad for my company, just giving you some back story. Well this month’s social media topic for us is KALE!

And as most of you no I’m not a CHEF and I’m surely no pro at all things Kale but I do cook it semi-regularly at home. There are different varieties but I usually use the plain ol’ green or red tipped versions. It’s the SUPERGREEN of greens. It’s all sorts of good for you. I’m not going to go into all the details of kale but check it out for yourself. Maybe start HERE and Google away. It’s almost daily that I get poked fun of by my co-workers for my clean eating. Throw out the word Kale and it’s a circus, then I realized that maybe they are just intimidated by it. So I got to thinking that maybe others are too. So I have a super quick recipe for you to use. This is good especially if you are on a time crunch. TIME is what I lack in all aspects of life so having a side dish to go with dinner that can cook super fast is IDEAL in my world!

This is KID APPROVED and hopefully CO-WORKER approved as well. Please NOTE my kids LOVE LOVE LOVE veggies so it’s not hard to please them but they really do like this simple ingredient, super quick side. I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed this dish before in previous posts but I never broke it down or had many pics to share.

Ingredients:
Bunch of Kale
2 slices of Uncured Bacon (nitrate free, no/low sugar)
1/4 cup sliced/diced onion or more to liking
Himalayan Salt (or preferred salt) to desired saltiness
Pepper
Garlic Powder (or real garlic if you have it on hand)
Red Chili Powder (OPTIONAL but if you want a little kick! A+)

Now what?!?
Get your skillet/pan heated up
Cut up bacon into small slices or bits and toss in skillet
After bacon is slightly brown add onion and sautee till bacon starts getting crispy
While bacon and onion are cooking prep/wash kale. I just tear it from the main hard stalk and tear up into smaller pieces. Rinse thoroughly and wait for Bacon to get a little crispy
Add Kale to skillet. It will look like a lot and depending on your skillet size you may save half Kale for later or wait till Kale wilts down before adding more.
Season as desired using above seasonings or whatever flavor profile you prefer
Once all the Kale is wilted down, you are READY TO SERVE!

Kale tore up and ready to be rinsed off.

Kale stalks NOT used for cooking! Not real sure if they are good to cook or not actually but not for this recipe!

YUM BACON!

Brown the Bacon a bit before adding Onion. Then let cook together tiill Bacon starts getting crispy!

Toss in rinsed Kale right on top of bacon and onions. At this point is when I add my seasonings. Let simmer than stir away as it wilts down.

As you can see it goes from A LOT to not A LOT. This was about half a Kale bunch.

Ready to SERVE!

OR READY to PACK up for LUNCH!

I made this in the morning before work and it took me less than 20 minutes to prep and cook. Maybe even 15 minutes. I didn’t look at the clock but you get the gist. It’s quick and easy! Cook it while you’re sauteeing some chicken. Add leftover roasted chicken or serve it with Fajita meat. The options are endless. And it’s a WINNER in our house.

So go forth and be AWESOME! Eat some KALE!

Confidence… Where are you?

Last week we had that Power Clean WOD, it has left a bad taste in my mouth and I’m sad because I really enjoy Cleans. I can not find the confidence to drop under the damn bar. It’s truly frustrating. I understand the movement, at lighter weights I can do it but once I put any sort of weight on the bar I FAIL. I can muscle it all up but that’s not the point. Coach knows I can do it. I feel I CAN do it but when action is required I shut down. And I don’t do it on purpose! This morning was a much better showing than on Friday, but I still wasn’t in good form.

Skill/Strength: 4 x 200m sprints. Well shitfire… my hips burned on all of these runs which in reality was a 50m sprint and 50m run and 100m jog. I couldn’t keep up the pace today. Overall I just felt weak.

8/28/12 WOD

MetCon: 8 Rounds 3 Hang Cleans @ 85lbs, 3 Bar Facing Burpees
Like I said up front, Cleans are my kryptonite right now. I am still feeling the aftermath of last week and disappointing myself. I was determined to not have the same failures but I was slow to pick up the bar today and just lacked confidence. After a fail in the 3rd or 4th round, I finally got pissed off enough to just do the work. I wish I had gone into the WOD with that mindset. I know I should ALWAYS be ready to kill it but it took me a bit to wind up. With that said I can’t be upset with my time. By the way, HANG CLEANS not the same fun as POWER CLEANS. Time: 6:37

FOOD
I’ve been trying to be better prepared for the week food-wise. Granted it’s only the second day of school but I got dinner out pretty quickly last night because I had my skirt steak already marinating from Sunday, had a chicken defrosted and ready to roast and have ground beef and sirloin ready to go for this evening. It’s work but I’ve been trying to be efficient. Hopefully I can keep this up without getting burned out. Thankfully the kids are super helpful but again it’s only Day 2 of the school year. I did manage to get a picture of their lunches today. Yay for CLEAN eating!

Roasted Chicken, Cherry Tomatoes, Hard Boiled Egg, Carrots, Grapes, Berries, Peaches. I did realize a little too late that they needed some GREEN foods but I forgot. Sigh!

Have a super day. And you all know it, say it with me: BE AWESOME!

Monday and so much to Talk about!

Here in our little world it’s the first day of school! Yippee and Boohooo. It’s great for the kids to see all their friends and get back into a routine and it’s sad because they are growing up soooo fast! It’s part of it, I know, but sad.

And it’s also back on track for eating clean. Last week I declared it was take a break week and that is what I did. I ate clean most of the time during the week but the dinners and the weekend weren’t the best. But I figure I can give myself that little bit. So I’m back at it and with that said so are the kids. They all asked to pack Paleo lunches instead of buying the cafeteria lunch. I’m really proud of them to make such decisions. I should of course taken pics but I forget to do these things. They took hearty salads and yummy fruit bowls. Maybe tomorrow I’ll snap some pics!

Boom Box
I woke up this morning feeling pretty good. But I knew FRAN was waiting for me at the box and I wasn’t ready for her. I had a week of eating like crap. I haven’t done Fran since January and I’m a big ol baby so ya, I wasn’t ready! I did a few warm up thrusters and that felt fine. Adding the weight was a little much for my right shoulder though. It’s just tender and achy and I decided I would go ahead with the 65lbs. Before I go further let me tell you about FRAN. It’s 21-15-9 of Thrusters and Pull Ups as fast as you can do it. So you do 21 thrusters, 21 pullups, 15 thrusters, 15 pullups, 9 thrusters and 9 pullups. Coach told us we should do 15 unbroken in the first round of thrusters. I managed to do this! Woohooo. I wasn’t sure if I would make it to 15 but I did and then the 6 after that weren’t so bad. Pull ups on the other hand were a pain in the ass. I struggled BAD. Got back to thrusters and did 7 and 8, they weren’t the prettiest but I got the job done. The 15 pull ups got super ugly. I was only managing one at a time. The shoulder was fatigued and I am a baby. Got through my 9 thrusters much better than the 15 rep round. I guess I got more rest in the pull ups. And of course I struggled even more with last round of pull ups. Time 9:48. Those darn pull ups. Argh. I did however PR. I’m not super proud of it because I know I should be better at pull ups by now 😦 But back on New Year’s Day I finished in 10:30. At least I’m getting better and not worse!

8/27/12 WOD

Saturday Community WOD
We had a straight up beat down at our Saturday Fun Day! It was a team WOD of 75 OHS (med ball), 400m run, 150 burpee box jumps, 400m run, 250 push ups, 400m runn, 300 sit ups. We had a good team strategy by breaking everything up into smaller sets per person. Our biggest struggle was the run. I am sad to say that I am one of the weaker links when it comes to running. We had to wait for the whole team to finish the run before we could start the next movements. Our team did really well and we pushed through to the end. We finished around 23 minutes and finished first! Woohooo. It was definitely work!

Oly Class
Class was all about the Split Jerk. Good thing it was from the rack because I was not ready for any type of Cleans after the hell I went through on Friday. I felt pretty good in regards to form and technique. I have some issues with locking my hips but overall I felt good about it. I worked up to 105lbs and failed at 115lbs. I believe I could get 115 but I think with being smoked from the 9am WOD and then working in the Oly class it was plain and simple I had nothing left to give. I’m glad I am putting in the time to the Oly class. Every bit helps!

Beautiful Blogger Award
I don’t get many awards but this weekend I was given a Beautiful Blogger Award by Andy over at Our Life in 3D! Thank you Andy. It is really nice to be acknowledged for my little blog. I mean after all, being told your AWESOME always makes you feel good! He received the same award because he too is a beautiful blogger! He shares his precious daughters with us and adventures of being a Dad. He also shares fun bits of randomness that we all can enjoy whether you’re a parent or not.

With this award I was given some things to do: A) Write ten interesting things about myself, B) Nominate other bloggers who I feel deserve this award, C) Let them know about the nomination!

A) First of all I don’t think I have 10 interesting things to tell you about myself. But I’ll try.
1. You all know this but I’m a mom of 3 boys. That in itself leads to an interesting life and lots of stories.

2. I once owned about a dozen snakes and about a dozen lizards. This was all before kids and it was a big daily chore to tend to all the critters.

3. I have raced in on 2 motocross races. One for a Mother’s day fun race and one that I actually entered like a ding dong head on a Yamaha 250. I didn’t come in last so that made me feel a little better but I was at the bottom. I’m glad I did it though.

4. I used to work at Starbucks and it’s been the best job I have ever had EVER and if I could make more money being a Barista I sooo would do that for a living.

5. I had my own Graphic Design business, more of a freelance thing but I did a handful of jobs before my marriage fell apart. If only I had given it more time then maybe I’d still be doing my own thing. Hard to do though when you are trying to start over in life with 2 kids and one on the way.

6. I dream of taking my kiddos to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro. I saw an IMAX movie about it and saw that it’s a feasible hike for inexperienced hikers and for all ages.

That’s all I can come up with. I’m sure I have more interesting things about me but I don’t know what they are! Now for the folks I keep tabs on and you should too:

Wine to Weightlifting: It’s all about getting stronger with Jennifer. She’s taken on weightlifting and she loves it. She works hard, takes on different programs and kills them.

The Sexi Flexi: This girl probably has got this award more than once. And deservedly so… she shares her food porn, her adventures in life and work and her personal side as well. She’s embraces life and it shows.

CutlFit: I’m sure this blog has this as well but it’s all about sharing here and I check in daily, multiple times a day! It’s all about living life with CultFit. Enjoying it, laughing at it and taking time for the small stuff.

Whatup Chickenbutt: Check this chica out. She’s funny, sarcastic, honest and will tell you how it is! She shares her obsession with lifting heavy shit and proves that you won’t turn all “manly” with weightlifting. She leads a BUSY life and still manages to find the time to get strong.

CjackPlay: If you want food, fitness and fashion then head on over to this blog. She shares her results, recipes and fun hair, makeup, etc tips. Unlike me, you can be girly!

Check all these bloggers out. Tell them I said HI and follow them religiously like I do.

That’s Monday folks! Enjoy it and Be AWESOME!!!

Just read their shirts… They too live in AWESOMENESS!

Yay Friday!

Silly boys…couldn’t stay awake this morning!

As you can see we are a sleepy people today! But it’s FRIDAY! My kids are nuts! Who falls asleep leaning on the fridge like that? Geesh! And my youngest dead on the chair. It was a good laugh this morning though!

I was so exhausted from yesterday as soon as I laid in bed I was out! My alarm was going off this morning and I seriously thought it was Saturday. It took me a few minutes to realize it wasn’t and that I had to get moving fast! And it’s hard to go fast when all your muscles have melted to the bed. I’m not a morning person but I’m a good morning person as in once I start moving, I’m UP. When I’m sleep deprived I drag a bit but other than I’m awake.

At the BOOM Box it was all about preparing for the our Competition next week. We were doing one of the WODs that our team will have to do at Europa. But before that we worked on our Skill/Strength which was TABATA Handstand Holds. TABATA is where you do work for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds and repeat over the course of 4 minutes. The idea is that you will put in more work with those 10 sec breaks than you would if you did work for an entire 4 minutes. With handstand holds this holds true. I know I could not hold a handstand straight for 2:40. The 6th and 7th round were weak for me. My wrists started killing me. I probably on stayed up for 15 seconds on the 7th round but fought hard to stay up on the 8th round. Definitely KILLER on the wrists.

8/10/12 WOD

MetCon: Team Effort 50 Back Squats per person for time. For the upcoming competition the WOD is 200 Backsquats, 50 per person for time. Kicker is you can’t put bar down. Your team has to hold the weight and change plates between male and females. Well there were only 2 of us this morning so we weren’t able to hold the bar for each other so we modified. We had to add/subtract weight while person held the bar across their back. Then the person holding the weight could rack it for next person. It wasn’t too bad for us, we just had to take on and off 10lb plates each time we switched. My teammate Ahmad busted out 25 reps right away. When he was done, I was like I dont’ think I can do that many. So I did 15 at 95lbs. Then we knocked them out in 10’s for two turns. He only 5 to go and then it was all me to finish out 15. So I did 3 sets of 5. While I rested, Ahmad and Coach held the weight. The last 15 sucked. Fatigue sets in bad. I already have wonky hips and that weakness was a long gone thought because the back was yelling at me to stop! I feel fine now of course but at that moment I did not want to finish! Time: 10:27

Last Night’s Outdoor WOD
I really didn’t know what I should do. I don’t want to do anything insane but I do want to get some work put in. After flipping through the XFit App, Jonas and I ended up doing our own little combo. After a jog around the fields we did 10 rounds of 3 Tuck Jumps, 3 Squats and 3 Broad Jumps. It doesn’t sound like much but all those JUMPS will take you out! I don’t have a good time for this because my MOUTHY teenager was being, well was being a teenager. So we had some points where we weren’t doing the movements. I finished under 6 minutes but had I not stopped I might have finished under 4 minutes. WHO KNOWS! After that we did 5 rounds of Baby Suicides. I say baby because it wasn’t a long distance and we had 3 lines to run back and forth from. We rested 1 minute between each round. The sprints took us anywhere from 25-30 seconds. By then we were drenched and walked/jog back to our chairs. Chugged a lot of water and then sat back and watched practice.

I won’t be doing an outdoor WOD tonight because I feel like 3 evenings of extra work is good for me at the moment. Plus we have a COMMUNITY WOD at the BOOM Box and I have an OLY Class after that! Better rest and recover this evening.

Food Intake Evaluation


You all know I whine and cry about all my FAILS when I don’t do so hot or I feel like I’m not improving like I feel I should. Well Ernie has to live with it! And he really thinks that my performance boils down to I don’t eat enough food and I disagree. I eat even when I’m not hungry just to fuel my body because I know it needs it. We decided I should talk to Grant (Coach) and see what he thinks. I went over with him my typical day of eating and he didn’t seem to think I didn’t eat enough but that I should add more fat to my meals, i.e. avocado. For example here is a “typical” day in my life. It’s a little more exciting than what you read but I’m not going to go into super detail and bore you. Just know my food is tasty and I like eating!
5 a.m. – BOOM BOX
6:30 a.m. – Eat  1-2 eggs and some fruit, sometimes some sort of animal
9:45 a.m. – Eat 1-2 hard boiled eggs, 2 pieces of pork belly, sometimes a veggie or fruit
1:00 p.m. – Animal, Veggies, sometimes fruit
4:00 p.m. – Green apple with Almond Butter (Yummo)
9:00 p.m. – Animal, Veggies

This schedule is pretty much the same M-F. Saturday and Sunday is less structured. So with that said I will add more fat in. I also know I could add more veggies, so that’s a goal as well.  He also suggested if I’m not hungry in the morning to just eat a bigger breakfast and skip the mid morning snack. We’ll see how it goes.

Breakfast this morning ツ

Hooray for FRIDAY! If you’re local come and play with us at CrossFit Boom – 9am! If you’re not then go to the park and play. Whatever you do, I hope it’s fun. Have a great weekend and Be full of AWESOME!

Rest Day Ramblings

It’s my rest day but I wanted to chit chat via blog rambling to myself and to you the readers if I can hold your interest at all.

Simple Dinners!
I’m just guessing but I would think most people have the excuse of I don’t have time to do everything. Therefore the drive thru it is or even some microwavable turd of a dinner. I’m guilty of it too. I have 3 BOYS! I’m guilty less now more than ever but YES I am a guilty party. I’m tired, I’m over it, blah blah blah, Chif-fil-A here I come. Taco Bell it is. (NOTE: I still eat clean unless I testify otherwise but I force my kids to eat like crap sometimes cause I’m being lazy) And just last night I proved to myself that although the fast food can be fast and easy we all know it’s not healthy and it’s just not worth it!

Kids have practice at 6pm so they only have time to get a snack in them like Almond Butter and Apple Slices and then we don’t get home till 8:45ish. It is a circus in our house. But the past couple of nights I have been Johnny on the spot in getting nutritious, clean meals to my kids bellies. And it only takes a little advanced preparation and some random throwing crap good stuff together. On Sunday I made meatloaf for dinner. Instead of one loaf, I made 2. Voila instant protein for Monday night dinner. I didn’t have enough Mashed Cauliflower to go with it but I had zucchini and made Zucchini Latkes. This is quick and easy and gave my kids enough to fill them up. They each had a KIWI for dessert!

Last week I made meat sauce for zucchini pasta and had an overflow so I froze it up and used it for the kids dinner last night. I shredded up more fresh zucchini and sauteed it a bit in some coconut oil along with some salt, pepper and thyme. Added my heated meat sauce and BAM easy dinner. I didn’t have enough zucchini for Ernie and I but I had Kale! I heated up some pork fat in a pan, did a quick sautee of the kale. All the while I had leftover roasted chicken which I heated up in coconut oil along with mushrooms. Added my kale and BOOM a really yummy dinner for Ernie and I.

Yes it was all leftovers but it didn’t taste like leftovers. With some fresh foods added and the leftover food re-created it was all yummy. And took me 20 minutes to knock out each night. It also helps to be creative with spices!

Also know that if you have chicken to cook but don’t want to bake it FOREVER then just cut it up and sautee it. It cooks in a fraction of the time as baking it or grilling it does. Just don’t over cook it! Add some veggies on the side and you’ll be rockin and a rollin.

Just Do It ALREADY!
In addition to finding simple meals YOU need to start moving. I may scare some of y’all with all the CrossFit terms and the extra workouts but it’s not a scary world out there. I watch Chris Powell’s Extreme Makeover: Weightloss Edition, and if you’ve seen it you know how it goes. He picks a desperate truly OBESE person to help out over the course of a year. He has the same opening routine for them all. He puts them through a FIGHT or FLIGHT workout.

If you’ve never worked out then the stuff he puts them through will hurt. Hell it will hurt those that moderately work out. Picking up weights heavier than 10lbs is gonna hurt. But your body will do so much more than your brain will tell you that you can do. And he shows that person that they will live through it even if they think that they can not. He works with these people on their levels and helps them push through mental and physical barriers for 3 months. He is not always nice but deep down these people know they need the tough love. Then he leaves them to their own where they have to do it on their own for the rest of the year. He checks in on them but he doesn’t have that daily interaction. Some struggle more than others but they all learn and grow.

We all aren’t so morbidly obese as the folks on the show are and we don’t all have that person in our face, in our home and in our lives so we have to take it upon ourselves to do it. And for most of us even if we did have someone telling us what to do we probably wouldn’t listen. Hell so many people ask me HOW I DO IT, or WHY I DO IT and it appears I amp someone up but then I see them in the same ol’ routines or even worse. I can’t make anyone take it on. It takes YOU and only YOU to make the change. I didn’t start out without a support system. I was doing my best to eat right, get up and workout daily and there Ernie was stuffing his face with Sonic, Chic-Fil-A, Braums, etc. It sucked. I smelled all this yummy badness but had to persevere on my own for my own good. I was thinking about my future and my health. A few months later Ernie did come on board and blew my “GOOD HEALTH” out of the water with this Paleo nonsense! I then followed suit and we make a good PALEO team (for the most part).

It’s awesome if you have a support system but not everyone does so you have to make a support system for yourself. Plan rewards for yourself; make new friends with the same goals; write your own blog (wink wink), find a fitness forum; find an online buddy if you need to do so. JUST START DOING IT ALREADY. Don’t let that wedding or upcoming birthday party delay your start. Start now and deal with whatever upcoming social event when you get to it. It’s not going hurt you to start a path to good health.

But Stephanie I’m happy with myself just the way I am! I’m no expert but I find it rare that someone who says they “could/should” lose weight but don’t “care” because they are “happy” just the way they are lying to themselves and everyone else. Also those who aren’t in need of weight loss but are in need of good health saying they are slender already, I’ll be fine, but will you? You may be a kind caring soul with a happy heart but physically are you happy. So I’m talking to all walks of life from the anorexic to the overweight, to the addicts or to the uneducated. Being overweight (unless a real health concern like thyroid issues) is just as much a sickness as anorexia or even addiction to drugs and alcohol. If you saw a frail disappearing girl that’s starving herself to death you might judge her quicker than you would judge someone who is 50lbs overweight. WHY? I have no idea but our society tends to accept that someone who is overweight doesn’t have similar types of body issues as those are wasting away. People with addiction to food, or alcohol or whatever all are similar in some regard. Again I’m no Dr., nor do I claim to be. I just take in what I see, what I grew up with, what I learn and where I see our society going and take it all in. Yes I am making my own assessments but it doesn’t take a super genius to figure it out. We can see that kids are bigger than EVER and more and more people are diagnosed with disease and more and more pills are being shelled out to FIX all these “bad” things that are suddenly plaguing us. It’s the quick fix. It’s the drive through, the magic microwave, the boxed food with all those chemicals and then we top it off with a cocktail of prescription medications to lower all the bad things that are elevated! Are you kidding me people?

Do you break a sweat walking 100 yards? Does it hurt to get out of bed in the morning? Do you have constant health issues? Migraines, High Blood Pressure, Joint Pain, etc? I’m telling you it’s about food intake, exercise and proper sleep. You can still enjoy life. Eating clean isn’t a death sentence. Feeling GOOD is a future. Getting endorphins flowing from exercise is a new way to happiness – A way better happiness than from getting high off of eating really tasty “bad” food that in the end always leaves you down in the dumps.

No I don’t look like this girl, not even close. I don’t know with my age, shape, etc that I could ever look like her BUT I feel pretty awesome none the less! I’m healthier than I’ve ever been, STRONGER than I’ve ever been and I feel great 99% of the time. The other 1% is girly moments, really sore muscle moments and the occasional STREP THROAT infection that I hope never happens again!

Last Night’s Outdoor WOD
Whew, my ramble took it’s own path. So let me close with my evening fun from last night. DEATH by 10 METERS! The DEATH part sounds scary but the 10m well, it doesn’t sound harsh but it gets ya. I had my youngest help me out with the clock since he didn’t have practice last night. He’s a very encouraging kiddo and even though I’m sucking wind and wanting to pass out, he’s totally telling me I’m doing good and getting faster and just being the best. If you don’t know what Death BY anything means then I’m here to tell you. My apologies to those of you who know and have read it 89787687 times. You start your clock and run 10m for the first minute. On the next minute you run 10m x 2. The next minute 10m x 3 and so forth. You keep adding 10m each minute until you can not fit the amount in the 1 minute. So if you are on your 13th round but it takes you longer than 1 minute to complete your score would be 12. Because the last minute you completed was 12. And the 13th round was just bonus work. (You can do this with any movement like squats, burpees, push ups, pull ups, etc.)

It’s such a short distance and it does get old and little bit of dizzy inducing. But it’s not easy! I completed 14 rounds and was so close to 15 but just didn’t have anything in me. Including my not completed 15th round, I sprinted 1190m! It adds up fast.

After some rest and water, I ended up throwing the football around. It’s not intense work but I was still on my feet moving. It was a good evening!

Have you had enough of me already? Or did I spark a fire from within? Either way, I got some of what I feel/think out. I get lost in my own thoughts as you can probably tell just from reading. It’s hard to communicate it all at once but rather than go crazy every post I save it for ever couple of weeks/months. I’ll be back to the regular scheduled programming tomorrow. Have an AWESOME day!

Mondays Suck but the OLYMPICS make it better!

First of all, I think we all should get paid vacation so we can focus on the OLYMPICS… it’s not like it’s every year. We should support our country as a whole ツ I don’t care about doing work, I care more about watching the USA compete even in sports that I know nothing about! I get goosebumps every time I hear some wonderful back story or see the pride on an athlete’s face whether they are on the podium or had a good performance clearing the path for a medal finish. The work, the blood, the tears…. EVERYTHING they put into making the Olympics their time to shine. It’s FANFREAKINGTASTIC!!!!

I was never much into weightlifting but since starting CrossFit and the fact that Olympic Lifts are part of it, I made a point to watch weightlifting. So far I’ve only watched the 48 kilo class and those tiny women are STRONG and make it look easy! It blows my mind. I’m really new to it all and I’m sure that’s the norm if you’ve been training your whole life for such things but it still blows my mind!!

I know, enough already, you’re not a sports writer or anything of the sort. I’m just a blogger, half ass one at that so I’ll move on to what I do regularly bore you with my daily crap! So the eating got a little better over the weekend and this week is going to be 100% back on track. I have 3 weeks till Europa and I need to be at my best. Europa is a Fitness Expo and they are hosting a CrossFit Competition that me and several other Boom Boxers signed up for as an intermediate team. Why oh why would we do such a thing? Mostly for fun! Secondly because this is where I first saw CrossFit in person a year ago. I totally wanted to be these people. I wanted to compete. I wanted to participate. Little did I know HOW HARD THIS SHIT REALLY IS and how hard it STILL is! But we signed up anyways. Win, Lose, FAIL… it will be fun. I just hope we are more on the winning end! So ya, this is why I need to clean up what I eat ASAP! And that process has begun.

GREEN SMOOTHIES
This is a work in progress that I admittedly did not want to be involved in. Ernie was determined to make a Kale Smoothie yesterday and although the flavor wasn’t bad, the thickness and chewability factor was horrid. He drank ate his smoothie and didn’t go for round 2.

This morning we failed at defrosting pork belly, SIGH, what will I have to eat now? Well a wild hair of an idea popped up and I said I’ll make me a green smoothie now! Why not? We have the stuff so I googled Paleo Smoothies and clicked around till I found one that sounded good to try. This smoothie called for a half frozen banana, spinach, cocoa powder, coconut oil, almond butter, cinnamon, almond milk and some ice. I started blending it all up, looked like a green/brown cup of nasty and tasted it… WHOAAAA too much cocoa powder, it’s unsweetened so it’s a really strong taste! Something was off – I FORGOT THE BANANA! DOH! So I threw half of a frozen banana into the food processor, added my green/brown concoction back in and gave it a whirl. This was much better in flavor but still too much cocoa. I know better next time and hopefully will have a better flavor profile. (YES ERNIE I DRANK IT ALL!)

WOD
I seriously considered sleeping in this morning. I just wasn’t feeling but I knew I had to shake my funk off and get to the BOOM BOX. I wasn’t the only sleeping in! I was the ONLY one there for the first 10 minutes. One other person showed up and that was it to our 5 am class. Not sure if folks are on vacation or just being slackers. But I definitely felt better about myself for just showing up!

Skill/Strength: 10 – 40yd sprints. I don’t really consider this skill or strength but only cause I’m a big baby and don’t like running. Although I’d rather sprint than run a damn mile. It is what it is. We didn’t really time anything out, just worked on form and form. I wish I was a better runner but I really don’t enjoy practicing the actual act of running. I’m screwed!

7/30/12 WOD

MetCon: Death by Front Squats – 65lbs. I know I’ve explained the whole Death By more than once but I gotta be fair to any new readers. When you do Death By anything it means you perform the movement you are assigned or the movement you choose on the minute, adding one rep for each minute. Soooooo you start clock, do 1 rep then rest till the start of the next minute. When that minute arrives you do 2 reps. Rest till the start of the next minute then do 3 reps. You keep doing this until you can not complete the amount of reps in the minute. With that said, I completed 11 rounds. I went for the 12th minute but I felt a tightening pain in my back/lat/somewhere in that region and it just hurt. I didn’t want to continue. It didn’t hurt when I “cleaned” the bar just when I would go from standing to squatting. Even if it didn’t hurt I probably wouldn’t have made it past 12. Regardless, including the 5 I completed in the 12th round, I did 71 Front Squats at 65lbs in less than 12 minutes. I was a hot sweaty mess. It was good work! I did some mobility afterwards and the back/shoulder/whatever is much better.

I hope tomorrow doesn’t involve running!!!! It’s only Monday. I’ve put my big girl panties on. Let’s do this! Commit to something good for YOU this week. It doesn’t have to be major but it surely can be ツ Make a goal this week. Eat clean, work out, walk, lay off the booze, meditate, read a book. Just commit to better mind and health. And let me know if you need MOTIVATION! I just wanna help! I want to help YOU, whoever YOU may be… crazy stalker, an old friend, complete stranger, etc. I know I sound CRAZY but I’m not really….uhhhhh depending I suppose on your definition of crazy, hehehe. Ah well. Ask for help if you need it… ENJOY your day! See you all tomorrow! Be AWESOME!