burpees

Home Stretch

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It’s so close – Day 27 of the WHOLE30 and you know what? This train isn’t stopping! I still wish I had a chef to alleviate some of the burden that goes into it all but I’m not holding my breath on that one. The big challenge will be Birthday Cupcakes at my son’s birthday party this weekend! I think I’ll be fine since at this moment that doesn’t even sound good. But who knows by then. I should be fine.

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Whole30 Days 24-27
The weekends have become easier to manage. In the past I either skipped meals or lived on fruit and junk of some form but I’m managing well with 3 meals a day. It helped that I made chili this weekend. Yesterday was the first day I felt a nap was in order, I think I was just spent from my CrossFit workout the day before but who knows. My hormones are still changing so it’s been all sorts of chaos on my mental state. I wish that would go away ASAP!

Went to PF Changs for my baby boy’s birthday. Risky I know. I googled it of course and partakers of Whole30 suggested the Gluten Free, Steamed Salmon and Ginger. So that’s what I ordered, no sauces on anything. Of course the server looked at me funny and said well the Chicken Lettuce Wraps you ordered weren’t special, I said I know, those are for them, not me 😦 OH how I LOVE the lettuce wraps. They would have been fine if they weren’t cooked in a sauce that has rice wine and sugar :/

I patiently waited for my food as it was the last to come out. Took a few bites and it was delicious! Flavorful and I’m not a huge fan of salmon. All the veggies were steamed as well. I busted out my bottle of Coconut Aminos, YES I DID! and splashed some on my foods. I probably would have been fine without but it was good anyways. Not too bad, even watched the family all get dessert. Although I wish I could had a sample, I powered through. Got home, started prepping my Chili for dinner and I had to rush, RUN to the bathroom. Not sure if there was something in that Salmon or if it was just fish itself but I fear it wasn’t Whole30 compliant. I won’t ever know though and I’m not quitting or starting over based on that. I felt fine the rest of the day.

As you can see or NOT see, I haven’t been taking any GOOD pics of my meals but I’ll share my Chili Pic with you. It’s not impressive but the actual food was good.

Not the best pic, Chili with sweet potato, avocado on top. YUM!

Not the best pic, Chili with sweet potato, avocado on top. YUM!

1/28/13 Lunch – Chili, Spinach Salad, Broccoli, Kiwi

1/28/13 Lunch – Chili, Spinach Salad, Broccoli, Kiwi

Chili Ingredients:
2lbs grassfed ground beef (chili cut, Burgandy Beef has a less ground beef just for chili, good stuff)
2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 onion
1 garlic glove
1 sweet potato (cubed)
1 TBS cooking fat
Spices: cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder, cayenne, red chili flakes, cinnamon ( I have no measurement as I just pour to my liking. I like heavy on the spice.

Saute onions and garlic in cooking fat, ghee for me, until onions start getting soft. Add ground beef. Add spices. Cook through. All the while I have the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and sweet potato warming up in my crockpot. You could do this all on stove as well. Once the ground beef is browned, dump into crockpot. Cook on high for 1-2 hours, check sweet potatoes. If they are soft, then you are good to go, If not let cook on low for another hour.

I would have added red, green and yellow peppers if I had them but I didn’t. It’s chili, add what you want. Turned out great! And sweet due to those sweet potatoes! Good stuff.

1/26/13 WOD
I was very sore walking into the BOOM Box Saturday morning. REALLY sore. My shoulders were dead, my hamstrings were dead and what was on the board: deadlifts and burpees!

Skill/Strength: 3 x 5 Deadlift @ 75% of 1RM
It’s been a LONG time since I’ve deadlifted. I think the last time is when I PR’d. And that was a while back now. So getting back to this lift was awkward but nice to do. 150lbs is my weight and overall I felt good. Had some small items to work on but didn’t lose all technique, thank goodness.

1/26/13 WOD

1/26/13 WOD

MetCon: 12.1! For those of you who don’t know, that was WOD 1 for the CrossFit Games Open last year. 7 minutes of Burpees! Oh the hell! We looked up our reps from last year and I got 74. Coach went around asking what our goals were for this time around and I said 75! Seriously. I’d be good with that. 3-2-1 GO! I was determined not to burn out too fast like I did last year. So I just went with the goal of “DON’T STOP”. Coaches were yelling out time left but it wasn’t really registering. I just thought this is the longest 7 minutes ever. I finally hit 75 reps and thought well shit I gotta keep going. Then I just said go and went H.A.M till I got to 90.

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Then I thought I was going to die but there was still 2 minutes left. I just kept going up and down, making all kinds of mad noises. Final: 112! WOOOOOO! I don’t know where that came from but I was all sorts of Happy. Made my day indeed! After I stopped rolling on the ground like a flailing weirdo, I sat up and said Whole30! Strict clean eating!

1/28/13 WOD
Still dead from the Burpees. My shoulders are TOAST! Today was nice and HUMID. 62° and HUMID! We aren’t used to this right now. So much better than FREEZING! I fear February will bring us SUPER COLD though. We need it to kill the buggies but I don’t like it!

Skill/Strength: 3 x 3 Back Squat @ 90% of 1RM
Yup that got heavy fast. My shoulder mobility sucked so bad holding on to the bar. UGH! My hips were dead too. I worked on my hip mobility after my first set and Coach noticed a big difference. I could feel it and knew then that I should have done both sides, but my right side is the painful side. Ah well. Got through the lifts ok. I’m not feeling explosive on the way back up. Hopefully that’s just a side effect of being smoked!

1/28/13 WOD

1/28/13 WOD

MetCon: 100 Double Unders, 75 HR Push Ups, 50 TTB, 25 Pull Ups. You have 5 minutes to complete each movement. If you finish early in your 5 minutes of one movement, you get to rest! Record time finished.
So we have 5 minutes to do 100 DUs, 5 minutes to do the Push Ups and so forth. A timed chipper I guess is best to describe it. I was already scare of DUs just because my shoulders are so tight, sore, etc. Shoulders go fast when they are already useless to you. Then PUSH UPS next. Not good! I finished DU’s in a little over 2 minutes, I can’t recall specific times but I know it was 2 something. It was a good rest till HR Push UPs. I struggled but managed to finish in a little over 4 minutes. Enough time to get handguards on for TTB, errr Knees to Elbow for me. I found my kip and got 10 in a row. Went back for another 10, then hit a wall. Only getting 5 at a time, then only 3, then 2. Finished under 4 minutes on this one though! Only 25 Pull Ups but it’s still alot in my book. Did 5, 5, 3, 2, 1, 2 and 1’d and 2’d it till the end. Finished in 4:20 I think, not sure, Final time (added up): 14:25.

There you have it folks. My weekend wrap up! Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. It’s a whole new week. Make that change you are thinking about, stop thinking about it! And be Awesome all the while!

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yawn!

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I probably could have used one more hour of sleep last night. I’m sleepy today. I was really sad when my alarm went off this morning even though I knew the WOD for the day would be – Double Unders!

I underestimated how smoked my shoulders would be after the beating I took from Cindy yesterday! And smoked they were and extra crispy now sitting here typing away. Skill/Strength consisted of DU work. I got this! NOT!

1/22/13 WOD

1/22/13 WOD

MetCon: 300 DUs, with 3 burpees EMOM OR 100 burpees with 2 Box Jumps EMOM
I don’t think I would choose burpees as my first option ever but after the way I struggled with the DUs this morning, it may have been a better decision! 3-2-1 GO 3 burpees. Whoa those hurt! It took me a little bit to get into the groove for DUs. Seriously a few minutes. I was struggling for some reason. Then the burpees. I ended having to do 30 but those wore on me fast! I thought I may have cried if I didn’t finish within the minute. Thankfully I busted out my last 30 before 11 minutes came up. Time 10:52 :/ I really thought I’d do much better than that. Ah well.

Whole 30 Days 20-21
Feeling a little more motivated to cook again. Although last night I was pushing it to a little later than I would like. After running some errands and sadly picking up the boys some fast food, I finally got home to cook my dinner. Turns out I really cooked my lunch and ate leftovers for dinner because I didn’t want to be eating at 9pm. It worked out well as I reheated and crispified some delicious Chicken Thighs. Threw the thighs together on top of a spinach salad with tomatoes and blackberries. Had a side of sweet potatoes and some coconut flakes and I was golden! While I was doing all of that I was baking Ernie a sweet potato, cooking asparagus and two hefty steaks. All is done son!

Lunch 1/21/13 - Cut up steak marinated in coconut aminos and other spices, roasted cauliflower, sauteed mixed veggies.

Lunch 1/21/13 – Cut up steak marinated in coconut aminos and other spices, roasted cauliflower, sauteed mixed veggies.

Dinner 1/22/13 – Chicken thighs on a bed of spinach, grape tomatoes and blackberries.

Dinner 1/22/13 – Chicken thighs on a bed of spinach, grape tomatoes and blackberries.

 

Day 21
Sleep is oh so important. It’s taking me a while to wind up for the day. My eyes are droopy and my body is beat down. It doesn’t help I sit at a desk all day. I’m tired! Post workout I had some egg whites and chicken sausage (so delightful). For breakfast I cooked up some cubed sweet potato, threw that in with some beef I had for lunch yesterday and inhaled a ziplock baggie full of baby spinach. My kids think I’m totally insane because I’m just stuffing raw spinach in my face as we are en route to school! Good times, Good times indeed! I’ve been feeling good, never having those HANGRY pains. Just happy to eat. Satiated and good to go until the next meal. Water is KEY and I can tell when I get behind on that. It’s been rare, but it does happen. I haven’t had one craving to snack, munch or nibble on something. And I definitely am not wishing for a power nap in the middle of the afternoon.

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To top it off I gotta figure out what kind of treat to get my youngest for his upcoming BIG 10YR Birthday, but none of the sweet temptations are even tempting on my brain or salivary glands. So I feel pretty confident I won’t just dive into a pile of cupcakes or cookies. So far Whole30 is treating me fairly well. Only 9 more days of super STRICT everything, but I’m not opposed to keep on keepin on. And just save any badness for events that are worthy! I don’t know what reintroducing bad foods will do to me either and sure don’t want to screw it up. After reading ISWF I really wish I could go on in perfect la la land forever! For those of you that don’t know – 80% of our immune system comes from our GUT so why do I want to screw that up after I’ve been eating so well to clean it up! You would think that decision would be easy. Clean HEALTHY living or take a gamble. But you say OH FOOD IS SO GOOD! ENJOY LIFE! TAKE THE GAMBLE! But really? Is it that great having MIGRAINES?!? I had more than my fare share in the month of December. There’s so much more rewarding stuff out there that doesn’t have to do with food. I’m not perfect. I’m not saying I won’t indulge in some ice cream at some point or a cupcake, I’m just saying I really am hoping I can be stronger than I have been in the past! Keep Calm and Whole30 On, Right?

Nobody was all that interested in my silly little 30 day $30 prize, but I’ll tell you my teenager was like I’ll do it. I told him if no one showed interest by Friday then I would let him and Ernie duke it out. See who stays on target, IF THEY CAN STAY ON TARGET! $30 is still a lot to a 13 yr old. If I could give away $300 I would. One day, One day!

Have a pleasant day. Relax a little. Breathe! and Be Awesome!

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Get Moving!

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Yup if you watched the Biggest Loser last night then you know I straight up took it from there. And Yes I am watching the Biggest Loser! I’ve watched it off and on throughout the years and YES the fact that Bob Harper drinks the KOOL-AID keeps me intrigued to watch it currently. And YES it’s made for TV drama – pulls on your emotions kind of thing and now they’ve pulled in kids to really tug those emotions. I’m not going to make it a point to recap the show regularly or whatever but it’s fresh on my mind right now.

It does make me a lil happy that these people are trying. Judge me, Judge the show, I care not. At least they are making efforts. I don’t know what their lives will be like when they get home and I probably will never know. I can just hope they inspired others to get fit and that they continue to stay fit. One of the best quotes from one of the ladies on the show was “I’m not here to get skinny, I’m here to get STRONG”. Hell ya lady. That’s the right kind of attitude. I loved it! The whole idea of last nights show was to GET MOVING. And it’s so right on.

Another thing that stayed with me (totally rephrasing, not verbatim) was when the Dr. on the show that tells the contestants their results of all the tests they took. He looked at this guy and says if I told you that you had lymphoma then you would dedicate 2 hours a day to chemo or whatever treatment that you had to do right? They guy was like YES SIR. He goes on to explain that he has arteries of an 80 yr old man and that he should know his disease is SERIOUS and to dedicate the time to fixing his disease of being overweight. POINT TAKEN! If you can’t understand how important it is to take your health into your own hands then what’s the point? Again, you aren’t here to be SKINNY. Be here to be STRONG and you don’t have to be muscle builder status, Just BE STRONG. Heart Strong, Mental Strong, I can push this CAR strong, I know I can do anything STRONG.

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So with that said folks, take a look at you. Whether you’re at the beginning of your journey… debating to have a start point, or well into your fitness. You know where you are. You know if you’re lying to yourself daily. Maybe you’ve hit the healthy point and you just need to keep yourself in check or maybe you’re the person that says I’ll start next Monday. Why wait? Make one baby step to better living today. Put the sugar and creamer down. Don’t buy that fountain drink today. Drink water today only. Then start tomorrow fresh. Walk around the block. I’m the jump in the deep in kind of girl. I tried the baby steps and well there’s too much room for excuses. So COLD TURKEY is best for me. As I see it, it should be the only option. Leaving room for excuses is a bad deal. I will take full advantage in justifying why something is or isn’t good for me. Oh one slice isn’t gonna hurt me, I’ve would typically eat three slices. That’s not right folks. Get dedicated and disciplined first. Then after a few weeks you can, IF YOU REALLY feel that need to eat something sinful then do it. But learn the ways, learn control, know your limits. Hopefully by then when you take a bite of yummy badness it may be too sweet and you can only tolerate a bite. Maybe if you’re like me, will still inhale it but feel like crapola afterwards and really know it’s not worth it.

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Pipe down already. You know I’m a rambler. Moving on to my BOOM Box morning. I was asleep before the WOD posted, thank goodness or I would have forced myself to sleep. I awoke to BAR Muscle Up work and Burpees and Pull Ups. Yay fun!

Bar Muscle UP

Bar Muscle UP

Skill/Strength: Bar Muscle Ups
Let me begin by telling you I’m scared of being so high off the ground. And the rig at the box has high bars. There are some that are lower that I can physically jump up and grab but they are not set up to do muscle ups. So the BAR that is is SCARY! I can’t even do a Muscle Up but it’s scary! So this morning we worked on the movement, the kip and well I’m scared. I remember in elementary school I could freaking get up on those bars, and spin in circles. The lack of fear in a child’s eye. Oh how I wish I had that now. But I don’t.

1/8/13 WOD

1/8/13 WOD

MetCon: 10-1 Burpees Behind Clap, Pull Ups
Anytime you see 10-1, it means you do 10 of the movement and work your way down to 1. So 10 Burpees, 10 Pull Ups, 9 Burpeed, 9 Pull Ups and so forth. As much as I despise burpees, they beat running and pull ups combined. I already wasn’t so great with the pull ups. After my small hiatus, they are even a little less great. It’s really defeating mentally. At some point last year I was really focused on putting in the extra work but it was short lived. I can’t let another year go by without putting forth the practice. But until this moment it hasn’t even been a second thought. 2013 will be the year of my first strict pull up, hopefully multiple and just being better on the bar in general. Yup I just said that. Now I gotta live up to it. But I digress. As for the MetCon, I did well with burpees and sucked with Pull Ups, giving me a sad time of 12:56.

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Whole30 Days 6 & 7
I got home last night and was rather uninspired for dinner. I googled all that I could for unique ground beef recipes that included a majority of ingredients I had in the kitchen. Nothing jumped out at me so I just went with cooking the beef with seasoning I like and use it for later. I cooked a serving side for me in another pan, added spinach and some sweet potato and it turned out being really scrumptious. Nothing fancy but really tasty. While I had been cooking the ground beef I was also baking a few chicken thighs. They were done at the same time I was ready to eat dinner so I threw one on top of my ground beef bowl. It was quite tasty as well. Of course I didn’t take a picture but I promise it was good.

This morning I had what’s become a routine Post Workout Meal of 2 hardboiled eggs and some sweet potato. This hits the spot. For breakfast which I ate an hour later I had 2 slice of Pork Belly, 1 cup of spinach, more sweet potato (I may turn orange soon), and some cherries. I know more cherries, I love cherries and I’m not eating them in excess, I promise. For lunch I brought a Kiwi! On the Whole30 lists, I have so far mostly picked the * items which are the more nutrient dense fruits and vegetables. So I feel good with my fruit selections. Also for lunch I brought the ground beef I cooked last night. I also made a experimental version of cauliflower rice. I sauteed so shallots and garlic in GHEE (which by the way is FABULOUS!), added my shredded cauliflower, let that toast up. I then added Vegetable Stock (I bought this because the ingredients were safe, I was rather surprised that my go to chicken stock had sugar in it 😦 ) I don’t have measurements for the stock as I was just pouring it in a little at a time. After what I felt was enough stock I added a can of tomato paste and stirred it all around. Added a little more stock because the cauliflower got a little thick in my opinion. Seasoned it with Cumin, Chili Powder, Salt and Pepper and let it simmer away. I barely tasted it this morning and it seemed to good. But the real test will be for lunch. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Day 7 Pre Work Out Meal
2 hardboiled eggs
1 cup sweet potato

Day 7 Breakfast
2 slices pork belly
1/2 cup sweet potato
1 cup spinach
6 cherries

Day 7 Lunch
1 cup ground beef (approx)
1-2 cups brocolli
2 cups cauliflower rice
1 kiwi

Day 7 Dinner
Probably steak but TBD

I had a super burst of ENERGY last night and it’s pretty much seeped into today. I feel really really really refreshed. I know Whole30 has a breakdown of the days and how you may be feeling. Well if Day 6/7 is FEELING REALLY GREAT then I’m on track! Too bad my body is sooooo sore from all the squats yesterday cause it hurts to walk!

On another note, there was Karma payback for Ernie yesterday. All that junk food junkie got him good yesterday. He finally showed up to the box, did a little warm up on the rower, and pushed the new EVIL sled a couple of times and low and behold he puked his guts out! Not that I wish that on him or anyone cause it sucks… but ya, he was done and out. Came home early and I thought he’s really done, he’s quit CrossFit. But he was just sickly. Hopefully today is better for him. 2 days of clean eating under his belt should help.

Have a beautiful day. Change something NOW, not tomorrow, or next week, NOW! And Be AWESOME while you’re changing!

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I HURT … EVERYWHERE!

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Yes boys and girls the ACHE set in and it’s so much more than an ache. My body was glued to the bed this morning. It was crippling and probably pretty hilarious (if you were watching me at least) as I got out of my car this morning! My legs are fried. And when I sit down at my desk I try and support myself by holding on to my desk but that’s a mess because my shoulders are dead. I’m a mess folks. I even went light weight yesterday, but squats and GRACE did me in! Was the little fat girl in me telling me to sleep in this morning? She sure was but the slim and trim imaginary girl was telling me I better get moving if I was going to get back on track.

Skill/Strength: Press 6, 6, 6, 6
Of course the idea is to push ourselves here and being all weak and pathetic I still gave it a go. I worked my way up to 65lbs for my last set of 6 and I was doing so well until the 5th rep and I just bailed. I think my brain just quit on me. I know I had more in the tank but I didn’t push. Overall I felt much better at press than I did squats yesterday… and press is my weakness! Just patiently waiting for that PR that’s due on this movement already!

12/18/12 WOD

12/18/12 WOD

MetCon: Fight Gone Bad Style 3 Rounds – 1 minute DUs, 1 minute HR Push Ups, 1 minute Plate Burpees, 1 minute Lunges, 1 minute Rest
As I have proclaimed in the past, double unders are my superpower. A weak superpower but it’s the one movement I know I can do with success. I still have a long way to be badass at them but I can knock a few out rather quickly. My whole upper body is dead from Grace yesterday so Push Ups and Burpees sucked. Burpees were extra sucky because we had to jump on a plate which isn’t as bad as burpee Box Jumps but still not fun. I was quite slow in that minute. Because I did suck so much on push ups and burpees, I really tried to pick up the pace with the lunges. I could only do so many before my legs were on fire each minute but I did the best I could. Total Reps: 305 (thank goodness for DUs!)

Now I sit here typing away and every inch of my body aches. Part of it, I know! Welcome back to the JUNGLE right?!?

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Please take this advice and NEVER EVER take more than a week off EVER. Unless of course you are injured, then heal up. It seriously feels like I’ve been off for months. Hopefully I bounce back stronger than ever but for now I still feel weaksauce! Tomorrow is a rest day…woohooo… but I have a Christmas DIY project that I hope to share with y’all. Until then continue to be AWESOME.

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Playing Catch Up

Sorry I’ve been MIA. With the holidays and the crazy busy madness of our NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP BOUND football team, I’ve been busy! I did manage to stuff my face properly over the long weekend and then proceed to try and kill myself while visiting Pflugerville, TX and drop in at a nearby box. With the excitement of the weekend, the hustle and bustle of trying to plan a trip to Disney and working, I’ve neglected my lil blog! To you, all my readers, I apologize! I’m not slacking out of laziness, I promise!

So let me recap for you the past few days. Like I mentioned I should win awards for how much food I took in on Thursday alone. Not to mention road trip eating the night before and the day after. Seriously, GLUTTONY awards should all go to me! In the middle of all of that I told my chunky butt self I should drop in at DEFIANT CROSSFIT in Round Rock, TX for their 9am post Thanksgiving WOD.

11/23/12 WOD

Boy oh boy what was I smoking? I showed up to a fairly nice sized group. Warm ups weren’t much different from what we do at the BOOM BOX so that was a good start! We then proceeded to do BANDED Sprints. Thankfully only in short distances. Then we worked on wall sits and plank holds. 3 – 1 minute rounds of each movement. That was a butt whoopin! It was the AFTER banded sprints and static holds that concerned me though. It was EVA for the WOD! Thank goodness it was a PARTNER WOD, well thank goodness for me, not my partner. Little did she know I suck at running and pull ups, YUP that’s me, suckaroni! So EVA is 5 rounds for time of 800m run, 30 KB swings (HEAVY) and 30 pullups. Being a team WOD we could split up the work. My partner Angela and I each ran a 400m run together to make up the 800m. We then split KB swings evenly and Pull Ups NOT SO evenly. Coach at the BOOM Box doesn’t allow us to use kipping with banded pull ups and I stayed true. My partner had a little more gas in the tank than I and pulled us through the pull ups. Good thing was I was swing 50lbs overhead in good form. It wasn’t easy but I made it through. Seriously thought I would throw up half way through just from all the foods I had ingested the day before! Overall it was fun hanging out at this box. If you’re in the area, check them out! When I’m back in town I will be sure to drop in again.

Football News

One of my kiddos football teams is going to DISNEY for the Pop Warner National Championships! Wooooo. The boys played in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday and low and behold have a come from behind win of 19-12! They were losing in the first half 12-0 but came back in the 2nd half with a fire in their bellies to play. The reward – 8 nights at Disney World and the chance for the Super Bowl! For those of you following along, I have been asking for donations, and I still am asking. So if you can donate anything to assist our boys with travel funds and food funds you can click here. Thank you for your support! Let’s GO ARLINGTON THUNDER!

Jr. Pee Wee Division II Jefferson Regional Champions – ARLINGTON THUNDER!

11/26/12 WOD
It was all about the SNATCH. Technique, technique, technique! Then it was 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. I feel like I’m good with getting the movement down, it’s when I go past 65 lbs that I’m not good! I know I can get the weight up, I just don’t DROP! It’s like I hit a brick wall and just forget what I’m doing! I managed to get up to 65lbs.

11/26/12 WOD

11/27/12 WOD
Skill/Strength: Kipping
I find that I do kipping well. Just not the pull up part. Today my hands were extra sensitive and hurt like a mofo. Maybe it’s just that it was COLD, my hands were dry and the bar was COLD! I was no bueno this morning on the bar.

11/27/12 WOD

MetCon: EMOM for 10 minutes, 6 burpees, 1/MU or 3 CTB or 6 pullups. If you don’t complete a round then it’s a penalty of 10 HR Push Ups! WOOO, I know how this is all gonna go down. LOTS of PUSH UPS for me! I got through the first 3 rounds before losing all the juice. I was managing 4 pullups per minute instead of the mandated 6. It was horrible! So my penalty 70 HR PUSH UPS! My shoulders are jelly jelly!

My apologies again for the blogging delay! Busy Busy Bee over here. Thanks for sticking with me and waiting patiently. I can’t promise you much the rest of the week or next week. If I get a workout in tomorrow then you’ll hear from me then. So if I’m quiet it’s not because I’m hiding, just taking care of business! You know the drill, have a good day, week, etc. and BE FREAKIN AWESOME!!!

Pistols, Dead Hangs and Burpees

Will I ever be able to do a Pistol (ONE LEGGED SQUAT) with ease? I feel that will never happen. My right leg is my most hopeful and I aspire to be a PISTOL-PRO one day but I don’t know that my left leg and more importantly my left IT band will ever allow me to do so. We worked on Pistols and the progressions that go with it this morning. And it’s not like pull ups where I DREAD working on them, it’s just frustrating that it’s not an easy movement for me! You can google Pistols and CrossFit and see people all over doing them.

They do them with a barbell overhead, they do them balancing on things such as kettlebells and they are done balancing on kettlebells with a barbell overhead! Seriously? My feet would die. My body would just collapse! Anyone else in my boat? Probalby not! Y’all are all a bunch of PISTOL freaks aren’t ya?

MetCon: 10 minutes of 3 Burpees EMOM and Sit Up Holds and Dead Hangs with remainder of minute alternating minutes.
I really wasn’t sure how to gauge this workout. 3 burpees at a time, not a problem. Probably the only time I’ll think burpees are just fine. Sit up hold on odd minutes, not a problem. DEAD HANGs – Houston we have a problem! I’m not the best at hanging from a bar. My hands are delicate like a flower.

My grip is at best laughable. I was worried. Scores were based on drops. So in this case LOW score is good, HIGH score is bad! 5 minutes of Dead Hangs though, I should have this in the bag. Plus there’s burpees so it’s not even a whole minute right? Well I really had to work the whole mindset and just try to find a happy place and I did just that for the first 2 Dead Hang minutes, then on the 3rd I had to drop about 20 seconds in. My hands were dying. On the 4th round I went strong and held on for dear life but my brain left me stranded on the last round and I dropped probably 15 seconds in. I’ll have to admit this was probably my best in regards to pushing out pain and just finding a peace. It still hurt like a MO’FO though. My score was 2. I’m alright with that.

11/15/12 WOD

Food News: Still eating good but still eating like crap as well. I’m really blaming this on the time change, cooler weather and football wearing me out. I have been cooking good foods but also making poor food choices in the evenings. It’s so damn hard mentally for me right now. Feel free to come pop me in the back of the head and tell me to straighten up. It’s a necessary evil!

It’s be Thursday and almost the weekend! Hope y’all have been enjoying your fall! It’s the perfect time to take long walks, play outside with your kids or friends. Go play Disc Golf or a friendly game of football at the park! And you know it …. Be Awesome!

Thrusters+Burpees May Cause Death PART 2!

I’m telling you putting those movements together is a freakin BEATDOWN! Thrusters in general takes every ounce out of you mentally and physically and well burpees are just no fun! Back in May we did a Thruster/Burpee combo and it was bad! Make it TABATA like we did today and sheesh you will be lying down in a puddle of sweat at the end.

MetCon: TABATA Thrusters, TABATA Lateral Burpees, Rest 5 minutes, REPEAT
We didn’t have a Skill/Strength portion of the morning but we did work on Mobility. We did some painful things to our shoulders with the barbell though. It was well worth it too. In our quest for ridding pain by causing pain, I realize my right shoulder is just not feeling much better. I work on some other banded torture and although it got a little better I was still having issues with the bar overhead.

11/9/12 WOD

Coach brought me some dumbbells to use instead of the bar for the Thrusters. They were only 12lbs but considering my shoulder was killing me this was the best idea. The way my arms/shoulders are positioned holding dumbbells vs the bar was less stress on the shoulder which was fantastic. But don’t let lighter weight fool you.

THRUSTERS are an ass kicker. By the time you get to Burpees, it’s just a relief to throw yourself on the ground. But that relief fades soon because Burpees are life draining! We took total count of our reps and for the first round I hit 83 reps total. My whole body was JELLO! I was happy for our 5 minute rest! I knew I’d have to best or equal my reps so I went as hard as I could for Thrusters. About half way through I lost power fast! I still managed to come ahead in rep count for this second round. With Burpees I really tried to just keep moving. It was hard by the last two rounds. I finished the 2nd round with 97 reps! WOOOHOO. Total of 180. Remember I only had 12lb dumbbells vs the RX 65lb barbell. I’m sure I would have a much lower count otherwise.

I was definitely WODdrunk post workout. Good way to end the week! I’ll be MIA for the Community WOD that is tomorrow @ 9am. But if you’re free and want to have some BOOM Box fun then just show up! There will be plenty of friendly folks there!

Have an AWESOME weekend with your AWESOME self!

Ambassadorship

I wish it was AM-BADASS-ORSHIP but it’s not, haha. Good news to share is that I was chosen to be a Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador. What does this mean and why is it cool or why should you care? Well I guess you don’t have to care at all but here is what it’s all about (from their website):

Girls Gone Sporty – Helping you “Live the Sporty Life!”What is the “sporty life”? It’s more than just fitness and nutrition; it’s an attitude that’s focused on embracing fun and adventure. The sporty woman says, “I can do anything I put my mind to, I just need the resources to do it.” That’s where Girls Gone Sporty comes in. Owned and operated by Laura Williams, a self-proclaimed “sporty girl” and her husband Lance Williams (an equally sporty guy), Girls Gone Sporty is dedicated to sharing the top products, trends and ideas for advancing the fit and adventurous lifestyle.

I applied because fellow blogger Jenn over at winetoweightlifting.com had become an Ambassador and shared what it was all about. After some research I really felt that I was in line with their ideas and thoughts so I applied. Hopefully I can meet even more ladies who blog and grow my little world of spreading health and fitness love. Thank you Girls Gone Sporty for choosing me!

Boom Box 11/6/12
Skill/Strength: 5 Negative Pull Up Hangs with 1 minute rest in between (Boooo, a necessary evil I know but I suck at all things pull up) and Front Rolls
As most of you know, I pretty much feel that I am not capable of doing pull ups. I’m sure I can but mentally I don’t feel that I will ever accomplish this goal. I know it’s in my head and I know I don’t put in the effort that I should but I’m still gonna complain! I felt that I did 3 out of the 5 attempts better than normal. So that must be a good thing RIGHT?!? After that torture we worked on Front Rolls. Believe it or not it hasn’t been since I was a little kid since I’ve done these. I used to go to a Boxing Gym and did workouts there. They’d have us roll around get up throw punches, roll more, throw more punches etc. to simulate getting worn down after a 3 minute round in the ring. It wasn’t so bad then and not so bad now. Just not used to rolling much these days.

11/6/12 WOD

MetCon: 30 seconds of each: HR Push Ups, 1 Front Roll, Burpee, Rest, Jumping Air Squat, 1 Front Roll, Burpees, Rest, Med Ball Situps, 1 Front Roll, Burpees
This was short and sweet. And with that said I was pretty sluggish. I just didn’t have any ounce in my bounce. We counted total reps for our score and I came in miserable with a count of 65.

We had some time left over and worked on skills and mobility that we felt we needed work on. So I chose to work on freestanding Handstands. I am capable but my hold time isn’t that great. After that Josh was working on jump rope skills and looked like he was going to attempt backwards double unders. So I thought I’d give it a go and whaddaya know I can string at least 2 together backwards! Hahah. Not a major feat I know, but it was fun trying.

Foods: Last night I finally got my head on straight in prepping some good foods for the week. Ernie snapped a pic for me. I know, I still need more greens! I have broccoli and kale in the fridge I just have to cook it! What you see in the pic below is grass fed roast, grass fed steak, mash cauli, cubed sweet potatoes, asparagus, acorn squash and spaghetti squash. That should be enough for 2 or 3 lunches.

Happy Election Day folks! There’s free food badness out there if you voted today and have your sticker to prove it, i.e. Taco Bell, Einstein Bros. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream! LOL don’t go there though. I resisted but just in case you’re up for an indulgence. Enjoy your Tuesday and remember to be AWESOME!

 

 

Better Than Yesterday

Progress no matter how slow or how minute is PROGRESS. Don’t forget that and don’t let up if you stray off course. If anyone has been the prime example of stumbling off the path it’s been me lately! So hone in on your goal the best you can. Choose your battles wisely and don’t let others influence your situation.

And know you can’t out train a bad diet! Believe me I try! What you put in your body is FUEL and if the fuel is JUNK then you’re not going to perform well. Maybe you say that’s not important to you but IT IS! You have to maintenance your vehicle regularly to keep it in tip top shape. If you’re putting in crap fuel, crap oil then your bound to have problems a lot sooner than if you use quality materials. Your BODY is so much more important than your vehicle! It carries you around FOR LIFE! And the maintenance fees are way more expensive the older you get. So if yesterday wasn’t pretty try and be better today!

BOOM Box Fun
Just recently Coach added a “pre warm-up” warm up to our mornings which is fine except that I roll in right at 5am. I finally got out of the door with enough time to do this pre warm up and feel so much better about myself. I felt pretty slackerish on Tuesday so I HAD to get out of bed just a little bit earlier. Just one more thing to add to my day but it’s worth it and if I want to get better then I know that’s what I have to do. Just tell my bed to let me go in the mornings, PLEASE! Heheh, it’s hard to get up so early all of the time. But it’s my only choice so that’s what I do.

10/25/12 WOD

Skill/Strength: Clean & Jerk work
After all our warming up, it was time to get some PVC time and practice our Clean & Jerk skills. Using the PVC bar is always so awkward but at the same time so helpful. It is so light weight and everything we do is over exaggerated. But going through those movements really helps translate to the bar. I never thought I would even use PVC to help me out in weightlifting. Hell I never thought I would say I’m doing WEIGHTLIFTING! But here I am and I’m loving it! I highly suggest picking up a barbell and lifting heavy shit.

MetCon: 10-1 of Burpees and Jumping Air Squats, Buy Out 30 KB Swings (1POOD)
That means you do 10 Burpees, 10 Jumping Air Squats, 9 Burpees, 9 Air Squats, 8 Burpees, and so forth. Doesn’t sound like a lot of work but I know it is and I promise you it is. I was torn on what I thought my time would be. Burpees take a lot out of me as much as I try to be efficient I end up sucking wind pretty bad. I do believe it was the Jumping Air Squats that did me in today. I say this because I don’t think I’ve ever done Jumping Air Squats in a CrossFit environment. Strange I know but I really can’t remember. Prior to CrossFit a squat was maybe getting to a 90° angle, knees and hips level. And when you got tired it was a half ass attempt. Well in CrossFit an Air Squat is breaking parallel.

You learn to get low. So going low and then JUMPING up from that is a butt whoopin! My hips were spent! At one point I wasn’t sure my legs were there to hold me up, fortunately they were! I almost forgot I had to do KB swings. I knocked out 15 and was ready to stop but I knew I had to do these unbroken. I really didn’t want to. I wanted to PUKE. But I wasn’t going to let that happen either. So I finished and laid down, rolled around on the floor a bit like a dying creature as well. Not pretty but I finished STRONG. Time: 7:17. Definitely feels good till I see the whiteboard later then I’ll regret every pause I took during the Air Squats :/ Hehehe. I know I’m hard on myself. It’s how I function.

Barbells For Boobs and #OccupyBoom
Two more days until our CrossFit Boom event for Barbells For Boobs! I know October is the “it” month for Breast Cancer Awareness but always remember that Cancer is around every month no matter where it hits and it hits all ages, races, genders, etc. If you are able to support me and my fundraising efforts I sure would appreciate it! I’m halfway to my goal of $100. I figure if I can get 25 people to donate $2, then I reach my goal! That’s less than your Starbucks coffee! That’s if you get Starbucks coffee. Or less than your Egg McMuffin this morning, ahahha. I hope you weren’t scarfing down one of those but it’s only $2. I welcome $1 from 50 people if that needs to be the case. B4B is a great cause and all donations go straight to them and in turn go straight to Mammograms in Action. You will be helping out uninsured and/or low income folks to get the screenings they need. Save a Pair, Save a Life. Donate HERE.

So at CrossFit Boom we are hosting the workout GRACE (30 Clean & Jerks for time). This is for fun and to raise awareness. If you’re not sure about CrossFit or want to know more, come on out and watch us. If you want to jump in and participate then you can participate. Everything can be scaled to your abilities. I’ve watched kids as young as 9 and people well into their 70s. It’s COMMUNITY coming together to throw around some weight and raise money for people in need! Oct 27th, 6pm, CrossFit Boom!

#OccupyBoom
After B4B we will be grillin some meats, so BYOB, bring your own BEEF, hehe, or chicken, or pork or whatever and we’ll have some folks cookin it up! After we fuel up we’ll have some friendly team competitions. Nothing INSANE I don’t think but I know there will lots of FUN! Come play with us!

It’s supposed to be a beautiful day in North Texas until the cold front comes in that is! So enjoy it cause tomorrow is supposed to be icky! And BE AWESOME while you are at it!

TGIF!

We made it to Friday – WHOOHOOO! And I’m so ready for a beautiful weekend full of the Boom Box and kiddo football! Which by the way if you are local (DFW) then come on out to our 9 a.m. Community WOD at CrossFit Boom! It’s a big ol’ ball of fun (pssst… it’s free too)!

This morning’s WOD only had the MetCon so I knew it wasn’t going to be purty. I figured we’d do mobility which is exactly what we did and it was exactly what I needed. After yesterdays Negative Pull Up Hangs, Ring Dips and Power Cleans my upper body was spent. I blame mostly the pull up hangs. Those were brutal.

So our whiteboard agenda this morning was: 9 Shoulder to Overhead, 15 burpees, 6 STOH, 15 burpees, 3 STOH, 15 burpees. As Heavy As Possible and UNBROKEN! Penalties for putting bar down ended up being: Take 10lbs off bar, repeat set unbroken, add 400m run at end of workout. You had to complete an unbroken set before moving on.

9/21/12 WOD

So it was suggested I give it a go at 85lbs. Fair enough, that’s heavy for me! We could push press or push jerk or whatever we needed to do to get the weight up. I did a mix of push press and push jerk as well as muscling it up like a loonball. I warmed my up to 85lbs and was ready to go. I DID complete the set of 9 and struggled through burpees. I rested a lil bit longer than I probably should have but I really didn’t want to fail at 6 reps. And sure enough I don’t think it would have mattered. I struggled on the 3rd rep and just felt I couldn’t get 3 more in. I racked my bar, dropped to 75lbs and fought through 6 reps. I really slowed down with the burpees but came back strong to do my 3 reps. I felt pretty good on those and I didn’t rush through the burpees but I didn’t drag ass either. Time: 6:46, then run, booooo running. Fortunately I only dropped the bar once.

Food note: Been eating like crap, not all the time but been letting our busy days/sad days bring me down. I finally let the tired set in and I just didn’t want to put forth the effort to prepare foods and cook them. I’m back on it once I get some good food shopping in. Overall I don’t feel a negative effect so much in my workouts but I feel it in my waistline! How sucky is that?!? Work so hard at being good month after month, then 1 week of crap and bam you physically feel like poo. Hopefully it’s more a bloating thing than a bad weight gain.

Hope your Friday is FABULOUS! and be AWESOME!! Come to the Boom Box tomorrow!