Another year, a better year

takecare

It’s 2014 ladies and gents. I hope everyone enjoyed not only their Christmas but ringing in the new year as well. As you all know, January is the month to start fresh. Gym memberships increase. Weight loss plans go into play. Etc. Etc. And yes I will join the cliché and “start over”.

index

I’ve never been one to make resolutions or goals really. I kind of say it in my head what I want to do but never write it down, unless I say it here in the good ol’ blog. I think mostly because I don’t want to let myself down by not meeting my goal or holding on to my resolution. This year will be different! I have some things I need to get accomplished physically, mentally, in the gym, outside of the gym and everything in between. But I’ll only bore you with my health and fitness goals 😀

My Health Goals:

annihilatechunkmonkey
1. Annihilate Chunky Monkey
2. Be a better planner/organizer so that all of my goals come to fruition.
3. Eat Clean 90% of the year. There will be vacations and there will be life celebrations and life just happens. But I really want to live that clean eating dream.
4. Complete at least one Whole30. This starts January 6th for me. And is the boost to eating clean for the year.
5. Dedicate at least 15 minutes a day at home to mobilizing/stretching. Work my way up to 30 minutes a day.
6. Get a freaking Pull Up. This includes making the time to work on this movement at home.
7. Improve my attitude towards running. I think some weight loss will help in this area. A lighter me will be a less oompa loompa me!
8. Lose weight. I’m not putting a number on this. I know where I’m at, where I’ve been and what’s ideal as far as I look and feel. I’ve learned to not weigh obsessively over the past two years and I’m not going to let that get in my head again. I just need these added layers of flub to be gone. Hopefully in the next 3 months.

I don’t think I’m asking too much of myself and I’m just hoping I can make all of the above HABITS. What are your goals? What do you want 2014 to bring?

Boom Box Recaps
12/31/13
Skill: Turkish Get Ups
Welp, with a bum wrist these aren’t ideal for me. So coach had me do some mobility. MUCH needed mobility! And some KB swings. Bleh.

12/31/13 WOD

12/31/13 WOD

MetCon: “Annie“ 50-40-30-20 and 10 rep rounds of: Double Unders and Sit Ups
Oh Annie, this is one MetCon I can kill, 8 months ago. But now, not so much :/ I’ve never been so slow at sit ups. In April I had a sub8 time. For the last day of the year I had a time of 9:07. And it was the sit ups that got me! I thought I had my 50 DUs unbroken but failed at 44, then at 46, then at 47. So frustrating. But I did 40 unbroken. At 30 I did like 15, then 15. For 20, I did 18 or something dumb and failed. And I managed to do 10 unbroken. I only stopped twice during Sit Ups but there were on SLOW MO. I thought I was going to puke. Thankfully I did not!

I felt like Annie was a good way to finish the year. And a good benchmark for me to retest in a couple of months. With clean eating and hopefully some weight loss, I hope to destroy my 7:58 time from April 2013!

1/1/13 FRAN NIGHT
I went back and forth on if I was going to go to Fran Night. Every year CrossFit Boom rings in the new year with FRAN: 21, 15, 9 of Thrusters and Pull Ups – the dirtiest girl WOD out there. I knew I couldn’t physically do the actual workout because I can’t do Thrusters right now, but I knew Coach would have something equally as painful for me to do. I wasn’t sure though, if I was going to have the energy to be AWAKE to workout. Well thanks to the Chick-fil-A bowl and my beloved AGGIES making it an exciting game, I was pretty awake. Two of my three kids were home. And one of them wanted to participate with me. So we loaded up and off we went.

After we all warmed up we split into two groups, the 2013 Fran and the 2014 Fran. I decided to make Fran my first workout of the year and I let my son, Justice, do the 2013 workout. I was so proud of my monkey. He is athletic and he is tough but he’s never really done a WOD at the box for time. And he’s for sure never done Fran. Coach gave him a 15lb bar and off he went. And I didn’t let him slack. I NO REPPED him on some Thrusters and several Pull Ups. He eventually had to move to bands to finish out the Pull Ups. Time: 7:18

justice3

Then it was my turn, womp womp. I was tasked with Front Squats and Pushups instead of Thrusters. The break down was 7 Squats, 7 Push Ups with fists x 3, 21 Pull Ups, 5 Squats, 5 Push Ups x 3, 15 Pull Ups, 5 Squats, 5 Push Ups, 4 Squats, 4 Push Ups, 9 Pull Ups. This was a beating. A pure beating. And I went from 1 green band and 1 blue band, to 2 green bands, 1 blue band. It was terrible. But I did the work. I haven’t actually done Fran in probably over a year and it was modified. I’m pretty sure I had completed this benchmark in the 8 minute range. For this year it was a slow 10:43! This is another WOD I need to retest in the future.

Looking forward.
And there you have it. I did start of the NEW YEAR strong. And starting Monday I plan to start eating CLEAN!

I have all the resources I need at my fingertips. Now I just need the mental aspect to stay focused. This is a year of Looking Forward, Planning Ahead and Staying Focused. I’m also replacing AWESOME with something else. I think I’ve awesomed myself out and probably all of you as well! Any suggestions on a new WORD/PHRASE for the year?

future

I see the LIGHT

lightattheend

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.

firstlunch_a

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.

breakfast1a breakfast1

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!

snack1a snack1

lunch1alunch1

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.

tigerpushup

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!

Screen shot 2013-06-13 at 12.07.07 PM

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!

t-shirt-im-not-perfect-just-awesome-design-red

Mobility Hurts SO Bad errr GOOD!

Wooo, this was supposed to get published yesterday. So I’m playing catch up now, my apologies for the delay!

Yesterday morning at the BOOM Box instead of skill or strength we worked on Shoulder mobility. And it hurt so good! I just wish it didn’t HURT that good! Holy geesh! If you’re familiar with Kelly Starrett over at Mobility WOD then you know he has a knack for wanting to hurt help you! And today we worked on some things I know came from his part of the world.

OUCHY MAMMA INDEED!

MetCon: Team WOD Team WOD (2 person) 200 DU, 120 STOH 75/45, 60 over the box jumps 20 inch
Alright, I can be competitive in this. Right? 3-2-1 Go… Double Unders coming up. My teammate hasn’t quite got DUs down so he had to do 3:1 singles. So I did 50 DUs and he did 150 singles. Got to Push Press/Jerk and started off quick doing 15 each. That got tough really fast so we took a step down to alternating every 10 reps. I was still feeling pretty good by the time we go to the Over the Box jumps and I NO REPPED right off the bat. DOH! I had this itty bitty fear of clearing the box and I messed up. And I took more of a step than a JUMP. I ended up jumping on the box then jumping off for each rep. Something about not making it over really makes my heart race. But we didn’t really slow down. Kept our pace up and finished strong! Time: 10:36

2/6/13 WOD

2/6/13 WOD

Other than really trying to push at the Box, I’m still eating relatively strong. Ernie is coming along with eating clean as well. It’s not his first go at it, but it’s been slow getting him back on track. But last night we did decided to go eat sushi because I didn’t feel like cooking. I had a little bit of everything including some rice rolls but also sashimi. I tried to avoid the soy sauce but I didn’t avoid it entirely. In the end, I didn’t feel stuffed or bloated, it is sushi after all! But I did come away with a slight headache. This however is something I can tolerate for a sushi treat 🙂 Slept like a champ still and even woke up before the alarm clock. It’s nice to just wake up and not have the alarm ruin everything.

tumblr_mfmhot99e91qaa6nno1_500

I’ve been trying to think of something new and fresh to add to my blogging besides daily recaps. Is there anything you readers would like to see/know/etc.? All of your input is welcome. Again, I’m here for support if you need an online cheerleader or just a friend in your adventure called life. This journey of fitness had made me stronger, happier and healthier. I may not have the certified background/education in fitness or nutrition but I have the day to day life experience. I have real life that goes on everyday. I have obstacles, emotions, KIDS and time management issues. I feel I am like a good majority of the people out there and just want to encourage you that it’s possible to live an active and healthy lifestyle!

health-and-fitness-quotes-motivational-e1351198582102

Well today is my rest day and hopefully I’ll spend some quality time doing mobility work at home. Enjoy your day. Make it great and make it AWESOME!

1638-awesomeflowchart-851px-570x855