Home Stretch

almost-there

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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Happy, Happy, Happy

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So I had this whole post that I had written and of course hadn’t saved and something happened with the interwebs and I lost it all! So it’s taken me a while to get back to it and I’m late in posting.

Other than that ENERGY is still great! I am happy, giddy, and just overall GOOD. Joint pain is greatly reduced, head has not ached and I am into deep sleep mode as soon as my head hits the pillow. I’m still on track and happy to be on it. I’ll get back my Whole30 after I recap my BOOM Box morning.

I Feel Great

1/9/13 WOD
It was cold and rainy this morning and although we need the rain, it has been non stop and miserable. The good thing about the rain is that we didn’t have to push the PROWLER this morning as part of our warm up. It’s EVIL I tell you, PURE EVIL! I know my WOD recaps are still a lil Debbie Downer but it is frustrating working my way back to a better place since I was such a slacker.

Skill/Strength: 4×5 Pendlay Rows
This is a new movement to me and it was really awkward at first. I worked up and finished at 75lbs. As I moved up in weight I really lost form because I wanted to JERK the weight but that is NOT how you do it. It should be a continuous movement, back stays in place. I was trying to lift my back up and it was all wrong. I learned and finished out relatively strong. Still awkward feeling but at least I know for the next time.

Class 7-3-12

MetCon: 4 rounds – 10 TTB, 20 KB Swings (1POOD), 30 DUs, Rest 1 minute
HIATUS = SKILL LOSS
It’s been a while since I’ve done TTB and I used to at least string together 3 in a row, but not today. I couldn’t even bust out ONE! Knees to Elbows here I come. That was silly too. I lost my kip! I seriously could not get a rhythm! Ugh. My first two rounds went along rather smoothly but my THIRD round was miserable. My hands were burning. I couldn’t string the KTE together. That’s all that took up time was hanging on the bar. I busted out the KB Swings and DUs pretty well. I finally finished with a time of 11:45. Looking foward to my new rest day THURSDAY!

1/9/13 WOD (sorry for the blur)

1/9/13 WOD (sorry for the blur)

Whole30 Day 7 & 8
I left you yesterday with a review on my newer experimental version of Spanish Cauli Rice and my unknown dinner. I will tell you that I mentally patted myself on the back the rest of the day yesterday for my faux rice! I also told a couple of people repeatedly of it’s awesomeness. It was excellent. My last version I used Salsa to get a MEXICAN RICE flavor. This time I used tomato paste and my own seasoning preferences. It was wonderful! I didn’t have enough to share with the kids but they approved the small taste I gave them at dinner time and Ernie said he enjoyed his with his lunch! WIN! Next time I make it I will be better at measuring my ingredients so I can share with you 🙂

Ground beef, YUMMO Spanish FAUX Rice, Broccoli stir fry

Ground beef, YUMMO Spanish FAUX Rice, Broccoli stir fry

As for dinner, Steak was on my brain but when I got home and looked at all the leftovers I knew we had to clean that up and get it eaten. I ran out of broccoli on the kids so I used my now favorite go to SPINACH sauteed with whatever protein I’m warming on on the stove. This time it was the roast in GHEE, my now new favorite cooking fat! Also had those Chicken Thighs I made the other day after I crisped them up with more GHEE! Leftovers got eaten up and all was well in our house.

Leftovers: Roast with spinach, Chicken Thigh, Cauli Rice, 1/2 avocado (ended up being less after kids took bites)

Leftovers: Roast with spinach, Chicken Thigh, Cauli Rice, 1/2 avocado (ended up being less after kids took bites)

After dinner, I went ahead and prepped more food for the morning and possible dinner tonight. Yes it does take some extra time to stay on track eating clean, but it’s not consuming my life. And it’s not hard manual labor. Just a few extra steps. And like I said earlier I am feeling great. I was telling a friend earlier that I believe I’m quicker to happiness because my body is just happy I’ve returned to clean eating rather than a shocking bolt to my system like it may be to those trying it out for the first time.

SNACKING

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I had another friend asking me about writing a post about mindless snacking like when you’re bored or BORED! I told her she probably wouldn’t like the answer. And it’s hard to tell someone when they are still eating SAD (standard american diet). Since I’m on the Whole30, I tell you how my brain translates what they have to say.

DON’T SNACK! If you MUST then make it a 1/2 meal. But try to stick to 3 meals a day. Before Whole30 and my off the wagon stint, I was eating 3 meals a day and 2 snacks a day. So essentially 5 meals a day. Now I’m to 3 meals a day per the rules of Whole30 and a Post Workout Meal because so far I haven’t woken up early enough for the Pre-Workout Meal.

The idea with Whole30 is that if you start off with a great grassfed protein, plenty of veggies and a thumbsize serving of healthy fat for your THREE meals then you should be set. So far this is TRUE. I have no HUNGRY moments in the day and I don’t have any desires to SNACK. I’m on Day 8. NO SNACKING required. I also follow the water intake rule of 1/2 my body weight in ounces. I also have 1-2 cups of hot tea. Mostly to keep me warm at my desk, but I do love me some tea.

In regards to CRAVINGS, I have yet to have any. The only day Ernie was buying chocolate, I could SMELL the candy and it smelled good. Chugalug on some water and I was fine. Cravings are definitely a mental battle though so I know it can be tough. I choose to subscribe to the Whole30 daily emails which are great by the way and worth the $14.99 to me. Well in one of the emails they talk about cravings and they say if you can think about steamed fish and broccoli and that really sounds good when you are having a craving, then eat, but eat a meal or 1/2 meal. If you are just craving sugar then most likely it won’t sound good and you need to occupy your brain with something else and drink water!

On a NON Whole30 perspective, all I got is eat a small serving of protein with a healthy fat because that is what I would do. Carbs will just spike your insulin and make you more HUNGRIES!

Please note I’m not a nutritionist or a professional. I’m just learning as I go, changing things as I go but not before I give something a chance. I’m not changing things daily. It’s a learning process and you learn how your body functions and tolerates certain foods with time. If you recall I did the 21 day Sugar detox because I was eating too much fruit and honey! It was a killer on me! KILLER. But I got through it and lost 7lbs! I’m not ready to eliminate fruit again but I eat a whole lot less fruit at this point. So I feel ok about it. If I need to eliminate fruits again I will but it will be hard on me mentally!

Hope everyone has enjoyed their day so far. REST DAY tomorrow, but hopefully I’ll still be sharing my Whole30 food and mood. I may also have a review of some organic tea that I’ve been trying out. Not sure I’m going there yet, but it’s coming soon. You know the sign off … BE AWESOME.

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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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Struggling Today

Having Halloween in the middle of the week is tough on the brain. So much to do and it’s only the middle of the week! Now I feel like it’s FRIDAY or even Saturday and it’s only Thursday. Sorry Thursday for giving you the bad rap today but it’s true. And to top it off it’s NOVEMBER! So not ready for the year to be over. The countdown is on!  At least I got up on time for the BOOM Box, my shoulders were trying to keep me in bed but I just had to say NO to sleeping in and YES to getting my ass kicked.

11/1/12 WOD
Sorry for the blurriness, it was light ink, bad lighting, etc.

MetCon:There was no Skill/Strength portion to today just an extra long warm up and mobility work. But there was a 16 minute AMRAP of 20 lunges and 20 Knee Hugs with a 100 Double Under buy in. I got those DU just fine or so I thought! My rope went bezerko. Only one handle was spinning properly and the other one would turn but felt like it was building up tension because it was all jacked up. It was bad. I was only knocking out 10-15 in a row. Took me almost 3 minutes maybe more to finish. I was not happy. Move on to lunges. I went as fast as I could for each round I did but I felt like that wasn’t going to cut it for the whiteboard standings. Knee Hugs are what dragged me down most. My right hip was on fire and every time I extended my legs out it was super uncomfortable. I’d start out with 6-10 reps each go and then drag way down to 1-2 reps at a time. Just an overall crappy performance. Final: 7 rounds, 20 Lunges, 11 Knee Hugs

Definitely not me and my abs but this was the best image sequence I could find visually describing Knee Hugs.

FOOD REPORT: Instead of making something with the PUMPKIN that is now 3 days old in my fridge I ended up helping one of my kiddos with his school project. So I still got NOTHIN’!

Another short post, who have I become? I hope everyone doesn’t stuff their face on Halloween candy for the next few days. MODERATION folks. Thanks all of you for the Costume love, I did win BEST Costume at work! Woooo! I guess that’s it for today. 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!

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.

Gettin’ It Done

After some consistency in my clean eating, getting a little more sleep and still gettin work done at the box I feel like my downward spiral of loserness is spiraling back up to awesomness. It’s not raining butterflies and glitter yet but I’m getting there.

With that said I almost didn’t get up for the BOOM Box this morning! Hahahah… I was so happy sleeping away. I still made it sure enough. 1 RM of Press was our Skill/Strength. I KNEW in my head I had a PR coming. And my head was an absolute LIAR. My brain sits on a throne of lies and my body fails me regularly! I still have the same Press and I was sad. My push press is 100lbs! I know I get to use my legs but still I was hoping for at least a 5lb baby PR! Just have to put more work in!

8/2/12 WOD

MetCon: 11.1 OPEN WOD – 10 min AMRAP of 30 Double Unders and 15 Ground To Overhead (45lbs)

Wooweee I was nervous for this workout. Starting out with Double Unders isn’t so bad. I can string em up pretty good, but I knew when my shoulders wore out it would be hard to keep it up. As for the 15 GTOH, I did Snatches. Some were muscled up and some were power snatches and I was slow my first round. I just wasn’t mentally in the right place. As time went on my DUs sucked, out of breath, losing focus, etc. But my Snatch got a little better because all I could think was GO H.A.M.! I don’t think I really went as hard as I probably should have but I was trying and I felt like I was moving fast and then I’d feel like I was in slow motion. My last set of DUs before time ran out were my best. Somehow my rope got a knot in it and I did my 30 DUs unbroken! Doing that on the last set was pretty amazeballs considering I was smoked. Maybe I just had that laser focus because time was running out. Score: 5 rounds + 30 + 7

Football conditioning for the kiddos disappeared the past 2 weeks but we are now into official practices. Like I’ve mentioned previously I’m going to add some workouts in during this time. I’m there for 2 1/2 hours so I might as well make it productive right?!? Not sure what I’ll do tonight but work will get done.

That’s all I got for ya today. Have a crazy fun day. Be awesome!!

It’s a CHIPPER Tuesday!

NO REALLY… We had a funtastic chipper for our WOD today.

6/12/12 WOD

Yes you read that correctly: 200 Double Unders, 50 Dead Lifts and 30 Push Press. RX weight was 85lbs, but I’m thinking my max is 90lbs so 85 is pushing it. I loaded up 65lbs but Coach was like why don’t you make that 75lbs, so dragging my feet I loaded up 10 more pounds. I was ready to go I suppose.

Anytime there’s a CLOCK and DU’s involved I suddenly suck at DUs. I can string at least 30-40 on any given day, moment or whatever but put a clock on me and I’m toast! I was thinking I’d have 200 done in 3 minutes or so, I’m not really sure about the time that I did finish the DUs, I just know it was more than 3 minutes. Moving on to Dead Lifts was what I was looking forward to and you just don’t imagine DUs smokin your ass so quick. I was doing the DL’s so slow at first and caught myself wondering why I was moving so slow, this is relatively light weight. I did the first 25 pretty slow and then picked up the pace for the last 25. Push Press is what really got me. I would do 2, then 3, then rest, the 5, then 2 more. I was a mess. I didn’t want to drop it because I didn’t want to clean it every time but I just couldn’t hold on to it. I struggled a lot but I pushed past limits which is always the goal right? Time: 14:55

I felt much better after this workout than I did with CINDY from yesterday. Big ol REST day tomorrow which I am thankful. I need rest although tomorrow I will be ants in my pants wanting to workout. Yes I’m sick in the head like that. I love getting a good workout in! But I also know without proper recovery I’ll be screwed.

I know this is short post without much depth but I don’t have anything going on in my noggin right now. Eat clean, work hard, pick up heavy stuff and put it over your head, and do it all the time. It’s a good thing Charlie Brown. I promise. You’ll feel like a badass, you’ll look like a badass and best of all you’ll KNOW you’re a badass!


 

Toes To Bar Thursday

And I actually didn’t suck as bad as I normally. This thing called PROGRESS is awesome! Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t in beast mode or anything, just better than my previous TTB attempts.

As always I never give you a constant flowing blog to read. I jump around. So let me start with the beginning of our 5am fun at the BOOM BOX.

For Skill/Strength we worked on Muscle Up technique. I’m nowhere near getting a MU but practice never hurts. We worked with the rings lower to the ground and used bands to support us. We sat on the band and stretched out horizontal like lying down but eleveated, letting the band hold us and then use our hips as our power to get to the rings and still stay horizontal. I searched the interwebs for a picture but I didn’t find one straight away so I gave up. I had this movement down pretty ok the first couple of tries but then something happened where my brain stopped working and my body went wonky and lacked coordination. We then moved on to sitting up and getting our feet under us. I had good technique for 2 attempts and then just lost it. It puts a lot of strain on my shoulders and I had more fails than I wanted. But it was definitely great to work on those small but super important movements.

Nowhere near this movement for me but this is for those of you not sure what I’m talking about when I say Muscle Up.

The MetCon was 10 min AMRAP of 5 TTB and 10 Double Unders. I dread the TTB but I managed to remember to borrow Ernie’s hand grips (which helped tremendously). I did much better than I ever have with TTB. My first couple of rounds they weren’t bad at all but I did lose that grip toward the end and I just can’t hang on and bust those out. Double Unders – I got those down now! Now 15 isn’t alot but I did 8 of my 10 rounds unbroken so it’s nice to feel “good” at something 🙂 Total Count: 10 Rounds + 4 TTB

Nothing else to report today. It’s rainy and blah outside but I still feel good! Eating clean does a body good folks! Try it out! There’s a couple of pics below to show you the sort of things I eat during the day while I’m at work. Have a glorious Thursday!

Typically a snack. Pasture Chicken Eggs and Pork Belly = YUMMO!

Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole, Salad and Buffalo that a coworker shared. It was cooked perfectly!

Top Sirloin Kabobs that I didn’t Kabob, just stir fried in a skillet, nice Steamed Broccoli and some Cherry Tomatoes = Happy Tummy!