Get Fit Stay Fit Challenge

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Several weeks ago I joined the AMRAP4Life Community. Now, I haven’t been super involved like I thought I would be but I still log in and check it out regularly. And I keep updated through Facebook. Yesterday I saw they had partnered with Reload Fitness for a “Get Fit Stay Fit Challenge”! Pretty much just what I needed to come across my path to help me stay motivated. I’m not sure what it’s going to involve over the course of the next 3 months, but hopefully I can hang and maybe win some cool stuff! Either way it should be fun. I invite all of you to join the AMPRAP4Life Community, here. And go ahead and join this challenge with me, here.

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I also invite any of you in the DFW metroplex who are interested in CrossFit or just want to check out a new box to come out to CrossFit Boom tomorrow at 9am.

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Most Saturdays are FREE Community WODs and we have a blast. Nothing intimidating. And the workouts are for everyone. This allows you to get a peek inside of what goes down at the BOOM Box. Plus you get a solid workout first thing to kick off your awesome weekend! Come out and play.

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7/25/13
So I decided to take Wednesday as a rest day because Tuesday wiped me out. This way I was plenty rested for the craziness in store for Thursday.

Speed: 5 band sprints, 8 40yrd sprints 10 – 100m Sprints on Rower
The skies opened up just in time for me to get to miss the outdoor sprints and although the rain was intermittent, I don’t think Coach wanted us to get stuck in a torrential downpour. Instead we hit the rowers. This is bittersweet. I am no bueno at rowing, but I prefer rowing over running. And 10 100m sprints sounded like NOT FUN! But I hit it hard, probably the best rowing I’ve done yet. I typically don’t have a strong enough pull and I get all wonky but this time around I was hitting on average 23 second sprints. This isn’t lightning fast by any means but for me it was progress and I will take it! My last two sprints were the most miserable. I slipped to about 26 seconds for each round. I was dying. Out of breath DYING!

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MetCon: 12 min amrap of 150 Sit Ups, 90 Pistols, 30 Calorie Row
!!??@$**#@#$$@ 150 STRAIGHT LEG SIT UPS!

Ugh. 3-2-1 GO. I started off not trying to kill myself knowing this would make it much harder to finish. So I felt I had a good pace and worked my way to 75 reps. I was getting dizzy but I knew I had to just chip away. I think I finished around the 6 minute mark. It was on to pistols which I am not capable of doing so I had to hold on to pull up rack for assistance. My strategy in knocking these out were 5 at a time alternating legs.

Assisted Pistol

Assisted Pistol

My left leg is weaker due to the IT Band pain but I fought my way through it! Coach yelled out 2:30 left … and I thought I WON’T finish my 90 but I NEED to finish those 90 reps. With 1 minute and change, I finished and slowly made it to the rower. Strapped in and began the rowing. My whole body felt like a wet noodle. I had nothing. The calories were not moving very quickly. With just under a minute left I was giving it my all. 11 calories. And then I unstrapped and rolled off the rower onto the ground. Whew. I was pretty pumped I made it through to the row. I know my pistols were ASSISTED but that’s still a lot of one legged squats! Final: 150 Sit Ups, 90 Pistols, 11 Calories on Rower

7/25/13 WOD

7/25/13 WOD

Happy Friday everybody. Have you been making changes for a healthier you? If you are already a healthier you, are you spicing up your fit world? Trying new things? Helping others to find their fitness path? I challenge you all to start something new. Get Moving! Eat Clean! Let’s do this. Make your weekend GREAT and as always BE AWESOME!!!

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I see the LIGHT

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I’m slowly but surely climbing out of my dungeon of laziness and lack of motivation. It’s been 4 days of cutting out the crap, showing up consistently at the BOOM Box and just keeping myself motivated to stick with it and not give in to the chaos that is my life and any random excuse my brain creates.

It’s been really sad to see poor numbers on the whiteboard for me. It’s part of it though and lesson hopefully learned. In a few weeks I hope to reset some goals since right now my only goal is just to get back in the swing of things and not let the “busy” trip me up. Since I’m still not back into cooking, ugh the sound of that just makes me bleh, I have been eating protein/fat filled salads, Boston Market (I know not ideal, but BETTER) and My Fit Foods! I was introduced to MFF down in Austin at the Fittest Games as they had sample foods for everyone. Rather tasty and located what seems like everywhere in the Austin area and nowhere in the DFW area.

My Fit Foods – Las Colinas

My Fit Foods – Las Colinas

And while that’s not true, because there are several in the DFW area there are just not any in my neck of the woods. I did very little research though because at the time I was cooking all my food and there wasn’t a NEED for pre-made foods. Since my gluttonous adventures have created this lack of drive for cooking, I needed something better than Boston Market and Chipotle. Don’t get me wrong Chipotle is good but I tire of it really quickly. So MFF offers pre-cooked meals in many varieties and has two locations rather close to my job. So I decided to venture out to the Las Colinas location and find me some good food.

The good thing about MFF is that most of their foods are gluten-free and they are made fresh daily. Score! And while they aren’t 100% PALEO, they are very close. They do offer beans, rice and potatoes in some of their meals but there are plenty of meals where those things are cut out. I’ve also read brown sugar and agave on some of the labels. But if at the end of the day those are the worst things and in small amounts, I have to give them an A+ for providing fresh, healthy foods. When I walked into the Las Colinas store, I was greeted rather quickly by one of the employees. She was quick to share with me what they had to offer and that they received deliveries twice a day from the Southlake store kitchen. She broke down that there are small, medium and large portion sizes and that I can order online, work with a nutritionist or just show up randomly and get whatever foods were in the store. You can take your food to go or have a seat in their shop and pop your meal in the microwaves there. They also carry supplements, snacks and a few other items I didn’t really take note of.

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I decided to go with a dinner meal called Better Beef & Broccoli. This had a good serving of sliced beef served on a bed of Broccoli, Carrots and Cabbage. It came with a side of wheat free soy sauce and YES I did put it on the food. I know SOY! But again it wasn’t a ginormous amount and I didn’t say I was perfect just yet! Overall it was flavorful and filled me up. Cost was $8.50.

Better Beef & Broccoli – There are veggies under there. I had already ate a few bites.

Better Beef & Broccoli – There are veggies under there. I had already ate a few bites.

Although that may be high price to a lot of folks, I can say that it was whole healthy foods. There wasn’t a mystery to what might be in the sauce or how the food was cooked. And if I’m going to be lazy at least I know I’m getting something good for me. Sure I could spend $5 at a fast food joint and get stuffed, feel like crap and save $3.50 at the moment. But who knows what that JUNK is going to cost me later on down the road. It will surely be more than $3.50! In addition to my yummy beefy lunch, I picked up a snack that caught my eye – Living Raw Darkest Cacao Truffles! If you like the dark chocolate, then these are a winner! The ingredients are simple and clean. There was some sneaky AGAVE in there but back to my statement earlier, if that’s the worst in tiny amounts then I’m gonna be ok with that. In a few weeks, I may be sugar free but for now, it’s baby steps! They were rich in flavor, tasty and a good simple snack.

YUMMO!

YUMMO!

Overall my first full impression of MFF is a win. So I went online, signed up for MFF rewards and earned a $5 off coupon. WOOOO! So I dropped in this morning to the Southlake store as their hours are 7am to 8pm and picked up Breakfast, Lunch and a Snack. I have only tried the Breakfast as I write this and it consisted of Turkey Sausage, Sweet Potatoes and Egg Whites.

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I was weary at the eggs just by looking at them but I made the purchase so I ate them. And they weren’t my favorite but they weren’t bad either, give me some YOLK! I would most likely add some salsa to them should I buy this breakfast again. The sausage links were flavorful and tasty. The sweet potatoes were good as well. Again some agave in the ingredient list but nothing was overly sweet so I’m not sure where it came in. These are great meals for those who lack time or culinary skills. If you’re going full on Paleo or Whole30 this isn’t the best place. But if you’re trying to just start over (cough*ME*cough) or just trying to work your way into healthier eating I’d say try it out. I’m anxious to try out the Pork and Butternut Squash I bought for lunch!

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MFF has locations in Arizona, California, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. They say on their website they cook 362 days out of the year which means a whole lot of of fresh food. They don’t deliver so if you aren’t close to one, I’m sorry.

BoomBox WODs

So I’ve shown up 3 days in a row now! FINALY, WOOOOO! And it seriously feels like I’m new to everything again without the awkwardness of using a barbell. I’m slow, I’m beat down and I’m draggin ass. But at least I’m there hoping to shed this extra fluff, get back some of the strength I’ve lost and start PRing like a bad ass mofo! Hehe, ok I’ll just be happy to remove the fluff!

6/11/13 WOD

Warm-up: 30 GHD Sit-ups/hip ext, 100 single jumps, Quad roll out
So I’ve previously stated I BARELY am able to get there by 6pm, so I missed most of this pre-warm up. I did get 100 singles in. We still do a group warm up after this so I’m all good.

Sprint: 3 x 30 yrds
Yay sprinting, my favorite :/ Uhm NO. But 30 yds is short so it’s ok. What wasn’t ok was feeling like a horse prancing around since we worked on running technique. And boy oh boy did I feel awkward. It’s much needed focus but I felt like I was at the rodeo! Maybe one day it will all click for me and I’ll become this fabulous runner. Hehehe. I said MAYBE.

6/11/13 WOD

6/11/13 WOD

Metcon: 4 rounds of 8 Hang Squat Clean to Thrusters 135/95#, 16 KBS 24/16kg, 24 DU, Rest 1 min
Thrusters – ARRRHHHHH! I love a good clean but add a thruster to it and I’m out. I only worked up to 75lbs for fear of dying during the WOD and that was an ok decision. I was definitely struggling in the end. The Kettle Bell Swings weren’t so bad except my back kept cramping up. So I only did 2 rounds UNBROKEN. Double Unders were a walk in the park. And the 1 minute rest flew by way to fast. I really slowed down overall in the 3rd and 4th rounds. Those Thrusters were a BEATING. Time: 13:46.

6/12/13 WOD

Skill development: MU, HSPU
More weaknesses! Muscle Up development went better than it has in the past. I have sucky shoulders so popping up and getting my head through was really weaksauce. But I did gain some ground on the whole using my hips part. Something similar to below:

As far as HSPU, I think my added heaviness scares me in going down to the ground. Kipping was not my friend so I had to opt for dumb Tiger Push Ups for the MetCon. Those are miserable and I suck at them.

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Tiger Push Up – head to ground and back up, straighten arms. Keep heels down as much as possible.

Metcon: 5 rounds of 1 min HSPU, 1 min no leg wall-balls 20/14# -then- ME Muscle-Ups/C2B
I just stated I suck at Tiger Push Ups. And we had to do 1 minute of them! By round 3 I was struggling getting back up. As for no leg wall balls. I thought these would be a breeze but boy was I wrong. Wall Balls are EVIL in general so I figured if you don’t have to squat they have to be a little less evil. And for the most part they are less evil. The hard thing is when you are fatigued your body wants to utilize the legs. Well you can’t do that when it’s a NO LEG WALL BALL. Shoulders get smoked super fast. Back and forth between the push ups and the wall was a butt whoopin.

At the end of five rounds we had to go straight into Max Effort pulling movement. MU’s, CTB or ring rows for my less elite self. Ring rows I like but I was dead and I wasn’t really focusing and I dropped after 12 reps, not realizing I couldn’t start back up. WOMP WOMP. So I finished with 118 reps of HSPU and Wall Balls + 12 ring rows.

Right now my body hates me but will soon be loving me all over again. And guess what it’s almost FRIDAY! Chuggin along with little to no hiccups. I’m getting back to the good things food related. Fighting through on my WODs. It’s nice. Energy is up and down still, but it’s only DAY 4. But more ups for sure. It’s so easy to forget how good it feels mentally and phsyically to be back in it. It’s SAD how easy it is to justify and accept the tired, bloat and misery. Hello ‘MERICA. Get your ass in gear. Eat Clean, Get Moving and BE AWESOME!

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On the Awesome note. I found AMRAP4Life and they say they are focused on building a community of AWESOME people. How perfect is that? So check them out: https://www.amrap4life.com/?i_uid=2512. Sign up if you’re interested. Find me and friend me.

I know I could have probably split this into three posts: one review, one recap and shared AMRAP4Life, BUT who has time for that! You get a lot at once. And sometimes NOTHING at all. Thank you all again for sticking with me. In my good times and depressing times. I’m working my way back to the good. Have a great Thursday and be AWESOME!

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