No Words

There are no words to describe what showing up to workout does for my mindset. Even if it’s not at my very best. On Sunday I self-sabotaged and dived into the MSG cesspool of what we all know and love (ok maybe it’s just me) as the Chinese Buffet. A new one popped up near us and it was shiny and new. Why not? Right. There are so many reasons as to why not – mystery meats, mystery sauces, etc.

My stomach grumbled the whole evening, the whole night and straight into the morning. I was not up to par for some Monday morning running at the BOOM Box, SOOOOO I slept in. And I felt it all day. Granted the junk in my body had to filter it’s way through but I just was blah all day. It was noticeable.

This morning however, although I was hurting, I still showed up to CrossFit Boom. I ate my egg whites post workout, I ate my breakfast and I feel so much better. Mentally and physically the fog is lifting and I move forward. When you make working out part of your everyday it’s a big hole in your world when you skip out. Especially after some good rest and recovery.

Now I know some of you dive in, kill yourselves, you can’t move for days and by the time you get back in the gym it’s like starting over. And then you quit! Well it’s a vicious cycle I know. Just the same as eating JUNK. But you have to mentally plow through. Stick with it. Forge on. Don’t get stuck in the excuses people. I for one like to get stuck in them and KNOW this about myself already. It’s really all about self awareness and rising above what brings you down. I have learned personally since my completion of the Whole30 that I can’t be a one foot in, one foot out kind of person. I sway to much to the one foot that is on the outside. So last night, I said enough is enough and I got back on the cooking train. I made plenty of veggies to help me through the week. I have my proteins defrosting. Now I just need to get some bone broth back in my arsenal and all will be well in the world!

2/23/13 WOD
OoooEeeee, this was going to be work. And it was one of those crawl back in bed mornings. Coach could read it in all our bodies and faces. It was a drag ass start. But we finally got into it.

Skill/Strength: 15 minutes to establish a 1RM of the barbell complex:
1 Clean
3 Front Squats
1 Jerk
3 Back Squats
1 Behind the Neck Jerk

It’s been a while since I’ve done any sort of complex. You don’t realize how much it takes out of you. I wasn’t in any hurry to jump up to big weight and I wanted to really focus. I worked my way up to 95lbs. I really should have got 105lbs but I was having that whole drop under the bar issue in Cleaning the bar. And 105 is a weight I know I can do. It’s yet to be pretty, but I can Clean it. But I feel I did alright. Nothing amazeballs but I felt good.

MetCon: 3 rounds 14 CTB, 7 Snatches (full squat) 135/85#
I don’t have Pull Ups so we all know I’m not doing Chest To Bar. I choose banded Pull Ups… as if i have a choice! And Snatches. Over time I’ve learned not to dread this movement but I still have a ways to go in technique. I stuck with 55lbs for this WOD. It was a good weight for me to move quickly and still have good form. I knocked out the Pull Ups easier than I have in the past… is this Progress knocking at my door? Yes I think so! My first round of Snatches were a little sloppy. I was not keeping the bar close enough to my body. Once I corrected that I was on a roll. My 2nd and 3rd round of Pull Ups didn’t go as easily as the first round. But my Snatch got better. My forearms were spent but overall I felt good. Time: 11:01

2/26/13 WOD
Like I mentioned previously, It was nice to just show up even though I didn’t have the best performance. It was extra cold and windy this morning and everything was achy!

Skill/Strength: Pull Ups
I can’t complain. I need to get better. You can’t get better without working on it and so many of the BOOM ladies are knocking these out like they are easy or something! Pull Up land is waiting for me. I feel like I’m getting there. Still slow as a snail but I’m getting there.

MetCon: CrossFit Games Open WOD 12.5 – 7 minute AMRAP of 3 Thrusters, 3 CTB, 6 Thrusters, 6 CTB, 9 Thrusters, 9 CTB, etc.
The RX for Thrusters was 65lbs. Shouldn’t be a problem. But into my 2nd round, I had a pinch in my shoulder that hurt like bloody hell. I couldn’t push past it so I dropped the weight to 55lbs. The pain didn’t go away but I stuck with it. Hoping it’s just inflammation from the Buffet Indulgence. Again, with the Pull Ups I felt I had a little more in me than I have in the past. My shoulder however really was hindering me. Total Reps: 48 I did better last year but I wasn’t in pain last year. I took a lot of time standing around. I feel confident I could have done much better had I not taken the time to switch weight, stand around in pain, etc. I made sure to do some hurts so good mobility afterwards. Hoping that helps in the long run.

That’s it for this Beautiful Tuesday. I’m hoping this week stays strong and positive! Stay focused. Drop the Excuses and as always be AWESOME!

It’s One of Those Days

You know the ones where you just have nothing in the tank. No more juice. My bones felt heavy today and even though I put in work at the BOOM Box it was just a dragging kind of morning. I blame it on the drizzle and fog. It felt like it infiltrated my body and was weighing me down. Or maybe I just didn’t eat enough carbs or something, who knows. Just felt like I was swimming in molasses!

Skill/Strength: Squat Cleans
I’m a CLEAN kind of girl. Love me some Cleans: Power, Squat, Hang (kind of). I ❤ cleaning the bar. There wasn’t a weight goal, rep scheme. Just work on technique, work up in weight and well have fun. Too bad I felt super heavy today. I still worked up to 95lbs and felt fine. There are so many tiny things to think about. Hips extended, drop under bar, elbows up, etc. Some lifts I get easy breezy, then I turn around and mess everything up. I felt productive though.

MetCon: 5 rounds of max reps on DL,WB; 40 seconds on 20 sec off; DL Axel 200/130, Plank push-ups (do a push-up every 5 seconds), Wall Ball 20/14
The good ol Axel. I love this thing! It’s about an inch thicker than a regular barbell. But I really prefer this over a barbell. Although after a while it’s hard to hold onto it because it is so thick. My hands didn’t hurt near as much either. I know it wasn’t super heavy weight but still it was nice on the hands. So we had to do as many reps as possible in 40 seconds, rest/transition to next movement which was Plank Push Ups for 40 seconds, rest/transition to Wall Balls. 5 freakin rounds! This sucked by round 4, no round 3. It was a beating. It was mostly the wall balls that were a beating. My first couple of throws didn’t even make the cut. So after getting a few NO REPS I knew I had to stop wasting energy but it was so hard today to get that ball up! It didn’t help we were holding a plank position right before the wall balls. On top of that doing a push up every 5 seconds. Yup shoulders still smoked, now they are extra crispy. In the end it was still a fun MetCon. Total reps: 85. If I could have just sucked up Wall Balls a little more I know I could have done way better. Ah well.

2/5/13 WOD

My WAY Better (IMO) Mexi-Cauli Rice
I’ve made Cauli Rice several ways and I have a Mexi version already but I made a new version and I love it. I hope you love it too!

Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower
1 cup chicken broth or water (I prefer the broth)
1 can tomato paste (small can)
1 TBS Chili Powder
Salt/Pepper (to your liking)
Cumin (to your liking)
Cayenne (to your liking)
half an onion (diced)
garlic clove (minced)
2 tsp cooking fat (I prefer GHEE)

Mexi-Cauli Rice – Ernie was kind enough to snap a pic for me, since I forgot to take pictures while I was making this.

Cook it up:
Chop up cauliflower into flowerettes. Then Shred cauliflower in food processor using the pulse function until Cauliflower is shredded to rice consistency.

While you are doing that have GHEE heating up over MED heat in skillet. Add your onion and garlic, saute till Golden. Add Cauliflower. Stir and add all spices. You can toss in whatever to meet your ideal flavor profile. Then add chicken broth. If you are low on chicken broth substitute with water. I only had 1/2 broth so I added a 1/2 cup water. Stir some more. Add tomato paste and Stir once more. Cover and simmer till a desired consistency. 15-20 minutes is what I have found best. If you’re in a hurry like I always am, I don’t turn down the heat right away. I just cover it and let it cook at a higher heat for a few minutes before turning heat to a simmer temp.

Serve with Ground beef, chicken, steak, WHATEVER protein you like. Add some guacamole and maybe a salad. It’s great stuff.

WholeLIFE
Back on track with the Whole30 mindset and boy does it feel good. Food tastes better and I’m full of energy until around 8:30 pm. Then I feel the tired hitting. Which is perfect. Relax a bit, watch some TV and night night! One of my fellow BOOMers, Mel, is taking on the Whole30 and asked me to be her SPONSOR per se. I’m more than happy to be her supporter and help her out along the way! Yay MEL! I know you will kill it and I know you won’t be happy probably this first week but next week you should start feeling awesome.

Superbowl Party Eats – I forgot to add this pic yesterday! doh! Paleo Deviled Eggs and Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potatoes

If anyone else is considering the Whole30, by all means, I’m an OPEN BOOK! I want to help you out!

Woooo, oh wait it’s only TUESDAY?!? That’s no fun! Ah well, make it a great day! Be Awesome!

STAY FOCUSED!

Short (normal) weekends are NO fun after two 4 day weekends in a row. It’s really Monday! Geesh. I vote for 3 day work weeks year round! It seems like I have so much to report on but I know by the time I’m done, it won’t seem like very much at all. Let me just preview that I did (but barely) make it to the BOOM Box on Saturday and I stayed on point for Whole30 which is a HUGE accomplishment for me (especially since Ernie was not so good)! I guess I’ll recap my WODs first then got through the Whole30, days 3-6.

1/5/13 WOD
I can tell you it took everything in me to show up for this EVIL workout. Seriously! And I set my alarm for 6:30 PM instead of AM so it’s surprising I woke up minutes before I had to leave. Why was it so EVIL, I’ll tell you why. RUNNING, 2 miles of RUNNING!

1/5/13 WOD

MetCon: 1 mile, 150 Double Unders, Red Gate Run (approx 1200m), 100 Double Unders, 400m run, 50 Double Unders
There was not Skill/Strength because this was going to take FOREVER if not longer. I had already joked that I’d probably be dead on the side of the road before we even started. For those of you NEW to my blog, I DESPISE RUNNING! It does nothing for me except make me want to cry. When I first started my fitness journey 2 years ago I went from a 11:47 mile to an 8:08 mile in a about a year but that 8:08 mile is long gone, a faded memory. And although that saddens me a bit, I’m not losing sleep over it. So for my first run, 1 MILE run, I took off with high hopes. Those hopes just dissipated before I hit the half mile mark. The only good thing going for me is that I didn’t STOP at all. Which in the recent past was something I couldn’t do. So if I can take anything positive I can say I ran it without stopping to walk. It wasn’t pretty tough though. I know it took me about 11 minutes to get through it! NOT GOOD AT ALL! Try to do a good string of double unders after you fell like DYING and ~~you’re~~ I’m screwed. I was hoping I would just pass out before I had to take off for the Red Gate Run but I didn’t. So I dragged my not so happy ass out the door and onto the pavement. This run was NOT GOOD, I did more of a TABATA run, 20 seconds run, 10 seconds walk. I would sometimes go for longer in the run but try to keep my walk to around 10 seconds. I didn’t even look at the time when I got back. The 100 DUs were easier for some reason than the 150. Went out for my 400m run and there was Chris ahead of me by 200m. I could catch him in the DUs, I really could. I just had a hard time stringing more than 10-15 together. I made it to 45 and hit a wall, I was having a hard time breathing but realized Chris wasn’t done. So I busted out the 5 reps and we both said TIME at the same time! Go figure, we tied. It was a race/struggle to the end. Time: 34:28

My calves did not love me the rest of the weekend and they are still pretty ridiculously sore But I did survive all that running no matter what my pace was, I’m glad I showed up. Even though I dread running, I do hope I can get back to those 8 minute miles.

1/7/13 WOD
Can someone call up Spring and tell it I’m ready for some warmer weather. I know it’s not dreadfully cold here in Texas but it’s too cold for me. I’m tired of these 20/30° temps. Especially at 5 AM! The BOX thermometer said it was 41° inside but it felt much colder! It seemed to take me longer to warm up this morning.

Skill/Strength: 5 x 5 Back Squat @82.5% of 1RM
Last week we did Back Squat at 80% and that felt good. Just a little more weight for this week and it felt HEAVY. I blame the cold air today cause my body just didn’t want to warm up. I worked up to 120lbs which is my 82.5% and chugged my way through the sets. Not one set felt awesome although I did complete them all. I just didn’t feel power or speed. I didn’t feel strong. Maybe it’s me dragging from Whole30, maybe it really is the COLD, maybe it just was how it was supposed to be today.

1/7/13 WOD

MetCon: 12 minutes on the minute 1 Full Clean + 1 Hang Clean AHAP. Score will be weight x 12 rounds.
This was a nice break to our typical cardio/lift MetCon. With my lack of commitment from last month, it’s been a hard come-back. I knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park but I knew I wasn’t going to be on death’s bed either. I haven’t SQUAT Cleaned OR HANG CLEANED in a very long time so I took my time with light weight working the movement. I worked my way up to 85lbs and failed 3 times in a row with the HANG CLEAN. UGH! I’m not a fan of this movement. I’m sure there’s something good and positive about it but I didn’t ask nor am I that intrigued at the moment. Just get the work done. Right?!? Finally 4th time’s a CHARM and I freaking Hang Cleaned 85lbs. I was good with this weight for 24 reps. It was nice to have the rest of the minute to rest, rethink the movement in my head, elbows up, elbows up, drop under the bar, etc. By the last couple of rounds I was dreading picking up the bar but I knew I had no choice but to attack it each time. With that said, I felt GOOD at the end of this MetCon, thank goodness! Total weight 1020lbs. No Failed Reps though! Yay! Getting back to feeling good. Itty Bitty Baby Steps!

Whole30 Days 3-6
So I left off with only documenting part of my Day 3. We had baseball practice so I figured I would probably get home and do something with ground beef. Low and behold my oldest son who is 13 prepared the chicken I had out defrosting. He ROASTED it for us so it would be ready by the time we got home from baseball practice! I was amazed. I have learned that roasting a chicken doesn’t take advanced culinary skills but for him to be so proactive and do all the right things, like rinsing it, cutting the neck off, drying it off, salting it, prepping the pan, preheating the oven and following through… I was quite impressed with him. That was a time-saver indeed! So now all I had to do was come up withe some sides. Wooo! I finished out the meal with some asparagus and some Bacon Fried Cabbage! I’ve never cooked cabbage so I wasn’t sure of the outcome, but it was a winner all around.

Bacon Fried Cabbage: (from Fast Paleo)
Ingredients:

12 ounces bacon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bag prepackaged coleslaw mix (without dressing), or one head chopped cabbage

Cook bacon in a deep skillet over medium heat until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove bacon from skillet and drain on a paper. Reserve bacon drippings in skillet and add olive oil.
Cook and stir cabbage in olive oil and bacon drippings, over medium heat, until cabbage wilts, 5 to 7 minutes.
Crumble bacon over cabbage. Stir and simmer until bacon is warmed, 2 to 3 minutes. Season with black pepper.

Roasted Chicken, Asparagus, Bacon Fried Cabbage. Not the prettiest pic but it was good and I promise it was good!

Day 4
I was dreading the weekend. Those are the days that you just want to eat whatever/whenever. I started off by not setting my alarm properly as previously mentioned. That means I didn’t get a PRE Workout Meal in. So far I suck at this meal. I knew I had to be quick at getting something good in POST WORKOUT. I had hardboiled eggs prepped so I ate those with some sweet potato. EASY! For breakfast I went ahead and had 2 over medium eggs, with some broccoli stir fried in coconut aminos and some Red Boat Fish Sauce. YUMMO. Add a piece of PORK BELLY and some avocado and BAM! Breakfast is done son!

Breakfast Day 4!

Lunch Day 4

So far I’ve been feeling pretty great about eating and not having cravings. Water intake is great! Time for lunch and by now it’s getting boring if you will cause it’s leftovers after leftovers. That’s not the point right now, the point is to stick to the program. And I’m doing just that! At the last minute we decide to go to a movie. Lunch wasn’t that long ago. But the gap the movie will take up may be too long. Kids were hungry, me not so much so we decide Chipotle. Then everyone sees Smashburger! ARGH! Well I drop everyone off at the burger place and I go to Chipotle with one kid. I got the Carnitas Salad Bowl, after doing a quick google and seeing that it was Whole30 acceptable. NO GUAC cause it looked like death and I was sad for it. It was not the greatest dinner but I got veggies and protein in.

Day 5
Sunday was the hardest day in regard to cravings and boredom and not wanting to cook. I can’t even recall what I ate for breakfast. Ah but I do recall, I had pork belly, hard boiled eggs and some avocado. For lunch we did our normal grocery shopping. I ate a beef frankfurter at Burgandy Pasture Beef after double checking the ingredients on the frankfurters. I had to make sure they didn’t add sugar for some reason. And they don’t so that was good. I ate that bunless and ate the lettuce, tomato and onion that typically goes with the burgers. On our shopping excursions for the day included a couple of stops for Mountain Dew and CHOCOLATE! Ernie got in the car with a Mr. Goodbar??!!?? I looked at him like are you serious? And you’re gonna eat it in front of me. And he did and that chocolate smelled oh so good. The DEVIL I tell you. And I looked at him and said I guess I’ll just chug some water! Stayed Strong! Go ME! But wait there’s more. He proceeded to buy Reese’s Peanut Butter Squares at Target cause he’d never seen them. REALLLY???!!???

And then for dinner he chose McDonald’s SUPERSIZED with Sweet Tea…. OH MY GOODNESS the FRIES… THE FRIES! But I just went home and cooked me up a steak, ate leftover sweet potatoes, leftover cabbage and more avocado!

I also prepped a grass fed chuck roast, acorn squash, hard boiled eggs, and kale chips. I was ready for Monday at least!

Day 6
Had a hard time waking up this AM. So AGAIN no Pre-Workout Meal But came home, threw down some hardboiled eggs and acorn squash. I was full and it wasn’t a lot! I knew I had to eat in 60-90 minutes but wasn’t feeling it. I still got some roast, spinach, kale chips and cherries in easy to eat containers because YES I would be eating this in the car on the way to work. My oven sucks so some of my Kale Chips were pretty tasty and some were NOT SO MUCH. I finished them off though and got through most of my protein and all of my spinach and cherries.

I’m feeling tired today but not sure if that’s WHOLE30 workin on my system or what. Lunch was pretty splendid. I had leftover steak, acorn squash, spinach salad with tomatoes and more pork belly. I should be set till dinner time. Ground beef is the only thing defrosted so we’ll see what happens.

Post Workout Meal
2 hard boiled eggs
1/4 acorn squash

Breakfast
4oz Roast
1/4 cup spinach
Sandwich size baggie full of Kale Chips
6 Cherries

Yes it’s KALE!

Lunch
6 oz Steak
1/4 acorn squash
1/4 cup mushrooms
2 cups spinach
5 cherry tomatoes
1 slice pork belly
Avocado

Again another NOT so pretty pic but it’s what I’m eating and it does have flavor 🙂

Dinner
TBD

All in all I feel good. The bloat is gone but the clothes are still a lil snug. I know this isn’t a WEIGHT LOSS program but I figure eating this clean would have some results quick-like. Patience grasshopper. I know! I know this is to RESTART good eating habits. Just anxious to lose some of this fluff! I’m sure by the end I will have lost a few pounds (I HOPE). Headache hasn’t resurfaced. Aches other than soreness are dissipating! 1/5 of the way there right? Hahah. It seems like forever to go. Will I make it? I sure as hell hope so. I do not want to start over.

I guess that’s it for now. Oh I did go to Barnes & Noble to buy “It Starts with Food” by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig from the Whole30 and it’s sold out! Good for them, booo for me! Ordering it today. I tell so many people to buy it but I have yet to buy it for me! It should be nothing less than AWESOME! I’ll let you know how it is once I get it 🙂 Go forth and be AWESOME on this Monday. See y’all tomorrow.

I should have bought this but in the end I did not

My Head is Gonna Explode, Seriously!

This headache of mine doesn’t want to leave and I’m not one to rely on pain killers so I’m doing my best to suck it up and carry on. I’ve been fighting this head cold, started Whole30 and well it’s that TIME of the month. So it’s like 3 strikes and your out kind of deal but I’m not going down, no sir-ee.

Whole30 Day 1-2
It’s AMAZEBALLS how not bloated one can feel after eating just one perfect day! This was the first time in a couple of weeks that I woke up without swollen hands! Besides my head hurting and my sinus cavities feeling like they are on fire, I’m sure it is also hurting due to wheat and sugar withdrawls (yes withdrawls on day 1 = no bueno). My body in general feels much better already. I’m not saying, it’s magic, I’m just saying there’s a difference to be noticed!

Also noting that I didn’t have HUNGRY moments yesterday. Eating good proportions, keeping up my water intake, eliminating wheat/grains and adding some good fat really does help. Like I mentioned yesterday this isn’t NEW to me but I’m walking this walk armed with knowledge and a plan. Before I just went along with this is PALEO and that’s it, just do it. I didn’t really evaluate how I was feeling or thinking. I hadn’t jumped on the blogging ship at that point and I wasn’t great at keeping a food journal either. I knew things were changing but I wasn’t making the conscious effort to notice what exactly was changing. At that point in time it was probably best that way. I just chugged along. Had I stopped to evaluate, I may have stopped altogether!

Yesterday I was strong, surprisingly NO CRAVINGS! I’m sure it won’t be that easy the whole way through. Our brains are tricky like that. But maybe my brain appreciates my will power to get back on a good path. I’m hoping my waistline appreciates it as well!

Yesterday’s Lunch. Boy oh boy have I missed my grassfed steak!

I detailed yesterday’s meals and I did end up eating those 2 hardboiled eggs. Not because I was hungry but I felt there was going to much of a stretch till dinner. For dinner I had made meat sauce with sweet potato noodles, baked a spaghetti squash and cooked asparagus. The squash was mentally prepared for lunch leftovers but it turned out I didn’t make enough sweet potato noodles for the 5 of us. Womp Womp. So Ernie and I had spaghetti squash while the boys enjoyed the noodles. For my “leftover” lunch I diced up sweet potato. I can dice up sweet potato more quickly than having the patience to make noodles. Meals don’t have to be a masterpiece – just tasty!

Whole30 Day 2 meals
Breakfast:
4 oz leftover steak
1 cup of broccoli
1 slice of pork belly
1/2 avocado

Quick Breakfast. Took my leftover steak, chopped it up, sauteed it with some coconut aminos, added broccoli! BOOM! (sorry for the blur)

Lunch:
1 cup Meat sauce
1 cup diced sweet potato
1/2 cup asparagus
1/2 grapefruit
(I NEED MORE GREENS I KNOW!)

Snack:
1 slice pork belly, 1 hardboiled egg

Dinner:
Skirt Steak
Broccoli
TBD

The Kale I thought I had that was good had already spoiled, I was hoping to have some sort of kale salad. I was wrong. So unless I stop by the store, I’ll have to improvise with whatever veggies I do have. It will be quick and simple but I’ll get the job done!

I’m back at the BOX tomorrow, thank goodness! I need it in a bad way. I’m hoping I can get up just a little earlier to get a PRE-WORKOUT meal in. I’ve never made a big deal about getting food in because I’m up so freakin early! No time to digest. Food doesn’t sound appealing at 4:30 in the morning. But I think it will be crucial for me in regards to staying on top of things and staying on course. PRAY I am able to get up even earlier! That way I can eat and prep my Post Workout meal as well so it’s easy breezy when I walk in the door. Busy Busy! No stopping me now!

If you are interested in going Whole30, Sugar Detox, Paleo, whatever… let me know. Email me at txgrl77@gmail.com, drop me a comment, send me a smoke signal. It’s not easy to go solo and if you need some support I’m more than happy to help you out. If you’re close by and want to check out CrossFit, then CrossFit Boom is the place to be. I want to help whoever wants help. Even if it’s just to say HI, OR KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Happy Thursday folks! You know the drill…. BE AWESOME! See you tomorrow!

WHOLE30 …. 3,2,1 GO

Let me say HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome back to my little world! December was a lazy month in regards to fitness and clean eating. October and November were the two months that kind of snowballed into December’s lazyfest. It’s now January 2 and I’m back on it! And that’s a promise. So I’m going ALL IN with the WHOLE 30 program. I need a restart, reboot, do-over. And like a good majority of folks out there I prolonged my start to today! I was dead set on starting yesterday but we got free tickets to The Heart of Dallas Bowl game and well I didn’t plan for that in regards to food prep. So yesterday was my last day of free for all, eat whatever.

This morning was supposed to be my personal re-dedication to NEW and old CrossFit goals. I was even excited for the 20 minute AMRAP because it was all movements I have confidence doing! But my sinuses were killing me last night. I coughed and sneezed all night and ate cough drops like they were the last edible items on earth. I completely forgot to set an alarm and slept through Ernie’s alarm as well. Needless to say I will save my energies and hit the BOOM Box up on Friday. Sorry Coach… I’m just a little behind but I got this! Until then let the WHOLE 30 journey begin!

WHOLE30
Since it’s only the morning of Day 1 I don’t have many details to my “day” as it’s only just begun. So as the days go on, you’ll get a recap from the previous day. For right now I’ll just ramble. 30 days folks that’s all! You can start on any day at any time.

When I started eating Paleo and CrossFitting back in Sept/Oct of 2011 I just jumped in all willy nilly, educating myself as I went. And I did read about Whole30 and all the greatness that comes with it but I wasn’t ready to commit to structure. And guess what it worked for me at that time. I was so gung ho I wasn’t going to let anything bring me down. And that worked pretty well for a whole year. Now I’m a mess! I’m eating DIRTY and not just that, I’m over eating! Eating for comfort, eating for boredom, eating just cause it sounds good. I also reintroduced sugary drinks like SWEET TEA and let go of typical water intake. This is BAD I know but it didn’t stop me.

And today is the reboot. And I chose Whole30.

With Whole30 they are really great about telling you why certain foods are awesome for you and why others that you may think are awesome are NOT so much. For my purposes, I KNOW this stuff. It’s not all shock and awe at this point. I’m the junkie who’s showing up for rehab. So for those of you new to clean eating, paleo, eating REAL food, etc then PLEASE check out Whole30’s site for yourself. Check it out and READ. It’s all very educational and at the very least something for you to really think about even if you think all the rest of us are crazy!

This excerpt below was from “The Whole30 Made Simple Success Guide”

This is a good daily affirmation for my well being and success. Hopefully it can be for you as well.

I was a drone for so long about taking care of yourself, eat clean, do it for you, do it for your kids. Then I laid off because I was the one slacking. But I’m back in full force to encourage you and inspire (hopefully) you to get on it. Start something new for YOU, for your health! I’m BEGGING you to change your eating habits for 30 days. Humor me. Humor yourself! It seriously can’t HURT you. I won’t lie you may feel like a bag of shit for a couple of days, maybe longer but the payoff is so worth it! Energy levels will be up, Pain will be gone and you may even shed a few pounds. Cut out the grains, the sugary drinks, the chemical sugar, the processed foods. Cut it all out! Eat real food. Don’t eat out of a box, can, plastic tray or microwave sleeve. Make the effort. Do the work. Add a little bit of movement and you should be amazed at where this journey will take you.

My note: If you are doing Meal Replacements, Weight Watchers, Nutri-System or anything along those lines and it’s working for you then that is truly AWESOME and I’m happy that you have had great success. I too have had success on numerous plans and diets and I always ended up back at square 1. With that said I am almost back at square 1 now so I’m not one to judge, bash or hold my nose up to you or whatever is WORKING for you. But I can tell you that even though I’ve regressed to my old ways at this moment that I KNOW for a fact that my good ways were the way to go. I KNOW that I was practically headache free for a year. I KNOW that my joints didn’t ache. I KNOW that I didn’t get head colds. I KNOW that I had energy. I KNOW my skin was AWESOME. I KNOW that I got the best sleep ever. I KNOW that I was teaching my kids a better way of eating. I KNOW I lost weight and was feeling great. So I challenge you to take the training wheels off of whatever program you are on and just move on to real foods, no grains, no sugars, etc. If you aren’t ready, then you aren’t ready. But take the time to understand that all of these gimmicky “diets” don’t last forever. The “rules” change, the “foods” change, the “prices” change. REAL FOOD stays REAL FOOD. But make sure it’s the good organic, non genetically modified foods. There’s a lot of marketing out there for “health” and “good heart” stuff and it’s really not. I’m not a scientist/doctor/etc. Just a person who writes about her walk in all of this. So take it for what it is. Educate yourself. Please!

I’ve weighed, taken a picture of myself and although I’m truly disappointed with ME, it’s where I am at NOW and I’m HERE and I have to start over! This time around I’m a little better armed with knowledge so hopefully this will be smooth sailing. For those of you NEW to doing this please KNOW you may slip up. Just don’t quit! Don’t hang your head and give up. Just restart the next day. You may have 3 Day 1’s or 5 Day 1’s, it doesn’t matter. At some point though you have to say enough is enough! You have to shake yourself up. Take a good look in the mirror. Know that heart disease, diabetes, etc are knocking on your door if they haven’t already taken up shop in you. Either way it’s not too late to fix it. It’s not too late to find health. I’m not talking about becoming a super model or fit freak. I’m talking about cleaning your body up, cleaning your mind up and just being healthy. Once you’ve made that decision and found that YES you can commit to good food which by the way doesn’t have to be bland boring food then you can find the path of fitness you desire to be at. I for example have never aspired to be a RUNNER. I won’t be a runner, I don’t want to be a runner. I won’t make my goals to be 10Ks and half marathons. I just won’t do it. Some of you will though. And that’s fine. It’s just not for me. I want to be strong, fit and healthy. For me CrossFit is the path. CrossFit isn’t for everyone’s mindset but it can be for everyone! Everything is scalable, modifiable … whatever you want to call it. You do what you can and your skill level but you push that to the limits and beyond until you see progress. Then you push yourself some more. That’s my cup of tea right there! Find what makes you happy activity wise and do it but jump in the deep end of the pool. Dipping your toe in isn’t going to do diddly squat. Jump in and have fun! Our time here isn’t forever! So enjoy the time you do have feeling GREAT!

As for my food intake today:
Whole 30 suggests 3 meals a day. Not 5 or 6. Snack if you must but try not to. If you are active then they suggest pre-workout meals and post workout meals. They have simple, easy to follow guidelines. I feel like I’ve started off weak but I don’t plan to stay on a weak course.

Breakfast:
1 slice of pork belly
1 over medium egg cooked in left over pork belly fat
1 slice of avocado
1/4 grapefruit

12 oz hot tea, 24oz of water intake so far

Lunch:
6 oz of steak
2 cups of veggies
handful of blackberries
1 slice of pork belly

Possible snack:
2 hardboiled eggs.

Dinner:
TBD

It’s not that hard. Yes you have to buy real food and yes you should ideally cook it. That takes EFFORT (gasp) and TIME (oooohhh) but it’s worth it!

That’s all folks for this now. I plan on taking pictures of my meals, outlining how I feel for the day etc but don’t hold your breath! I’ll still be here posting away, just not sure how ambitious I’ll be. As for the new year I was going to start using a new phrase but I decided against it. It will be another year of AWESOME! At least for now. It could change who knows! So for those of you tuning in as new readers… HAVE AN AWESOME day. Embrace the AWESOME in you and live the AWESOME life. For those of you tired of the AWESOME, I’m sorry. Learn to love it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September you ARRIVED so quickly!

Where has there year gone and where is it going? I have no idea, but it’s just flown by with super ninja like quickness! We’re already in September and I’m not ready for the rest of the year!

The one good thing about September being here is a 3 day weekend for Labor Day! Woooo! In this weekend I ate rather poorly in all aspects: probably not enough food on some days, poor quality in food on all days and just overall processed, make you puffy and gain weight eats. I’m not sad or in the dumps over it. Just staying honest with y’all. I’ve been more let loose over the past couple of months than I have ever been and I think it’s about time to nip it in the bud. I guess a combo of vacation, summer time, football insanity and post competition has left me feeling the need to just not nit pick all my food choices. The vacation is over. Back to eating clean 90-95% of the time if not 100% and no more slackin off. Good thing is that it’ts NOT HARD to do anymore. Eating Clean, Eating Paleo is second nature to my whole family now.

Even though I ate rather poorly and had a restful weekend we still had some BOOM BOX fun on Labor Day. Coach was sure to make us to do work and that he did fellow readers, that he did! We started off with a game, although it wasn’t a game o’ fun. We split up into groups of 3. He gave us 3 different sets of CrossFit Totals from Friday, he didn’t give us the total just the weight for each movement. After we wrote them down we had to run 400m, come back and do the Math for the first CrossFit total, RUN 400m, come back and do the math for the 2nd CFT, run 400m and come back and do the math for the 3rd CFT. If we did the math wrong then it was a burpee penalty. Thank goodness we did our math right. After we all composed ourselves, the top 2 teams moved on to the LIGHTNING round, lol. Us losers had to pick a team to side with. We were there to watch, not talk and hope they got their answers right. If they didn’t we got dealt a burpee penalty for every wrong answer the team got. There were 6 categories and it was an A or B type answer format. Out of 9 questions the team we were with only got 3 answers correct That left us with 30 burpees each for consequence!

Lumberjack 20 Crew!

That was just our little “fun” warm up. The LUMBERJACK 20 was what was in store for us after all the fun!
20 DL (135lbs), 400m run, 20 KB Swing (1 POOD), 400m run, 20 OHS (35lbs), 400m run, 20 Burpees, 400m run, 20 CTB Pull ups, 400m run, 20 Box Jumps (24″), 400m run, 20 Squat Cleans (75lbs), 400m run. We did this as a team at weights suitable for the 3 of us. Only one person could be working and only one person had to do the runs vs. the whole team running, which was a good thing I suppose. We were killing it at first because we had our youthful 15 yr old teammate (Grant) do all the running! It was at the Chest To Bar Pull ups where we slowed down and never recovered. If only Annette and I had anything to give in regards to those pull ups I’m sure we would have landed ourselves a 1st or 2nd place. Instead we fell short with a time of 18:49. I know my running pace didn’t help much either. Either way it was definitely a good and fun WOD!

9/3/12 Labor Day WOD

9/4/12 WOD
This morning was back to the normal schedule of 5am! And I was tired! Seriously zombie-like draggin butt tired. Nothing like a few Deadlifts to wake you up!

Skill/Strength: Deadlift 5RM
Woooowwweeeee. I worked my way up to 175 which is 10lbs shy of my 185 1RM. It wasn’t too shabby, so we jumped to 195, MY weight nemesis. I’ve been trying 195 for a while now and I got nothing and as of 5:20 this morning I still got nothin! So we moved back down to 185 and low and behold I busted out 5. Now they were slow and not pretty but I made it work. So why in the heckola can I not freakin lift 195 or more?!? It’s in my head I suppose. And once my brain learns to mind it’s own business then maybe just maybe I can freaking get that weight up!

9/4/12 WOD

MetCon: 1 minute of SOTO PRESS and 1 minute of max 10 yd shuttle. In my googlings (not very in depth) I found nothing to show as an example of what the SOTO Press is but I’ll explain the best I can. You stay in the bottom part of an OHS and you pull bar down (PVC for this MetCon) to your shoulders and just press up and down all the while holding that Squat. Talk about BURN! Mostly my RIGHT HIP because my right hip is a loser! If you stand up in that minute you are penalized with 5 burpees and minus 5 count on the 10yd shuttle run! Well this was a big ol FAIL in MetConLand for me. I couldn’t hold the minute squat on any round. I had to do burpees on the spot which ate into my shuttle time. It was bad. I only got one run in at the full minute and I managed to get 18 lengths. Too bad only 13 counted out of that 18!!!! Only 43 of my 73 10 yrd lengths counted! ARGH! Shoulda, coulda, woulda’s. Who knows what my score would be without penalties!!

That does it for today. REST day tomorrow and hopefully some good mobility work for my WHOLE body! Be AWESOME and someone please buy me the shirt below. It’s at Academy. Great! Thanks!

Seriously OHS and HSPUs… my wrists are crying!

So it’s later than normal for my WOD recap, part of it, I’m sorry, blah blah blah.

Got to the BOOM Box for a nice little combo of Dead Lifts, Overhead Squats (OHS) and Handstand Push Ups (HSPU). I’ve grown to love MetCons that include lifting but OHS is like kryptonite for me.

That along with Snatch! So although I do not despise OHS I definitely have not found my happy place. It’s awkward, it hurts my sad pathetic wrists and I wish I could do heavier weight comfortably but I can’t 😦

5/23/12 WOD

We had 4 rounds of a 3 minute AMRAP that included 3 OHS and 3 HSPU. I could have sworn it was originally 2 minutes but I’m also half asleep at 5am. As you can see on the white board image, I didn’t get very many rounds in. Going from OHS that kills my wrists, even with my handy dandy Strength Wraps, to HSPUs is killer. My shoulders are dead, my wrists are dead, I’m just dead. By the fourth round, it wasn’t the OHS that was killing me, it was the HSPUs! Holy Crapola it was hard to knock out 3 of those bad boys.

We also worked on Dead Lifts prior to the MetCon for Skill/Strength. Coach did the math for us today so I did 3 @ 130lbs, 3 @ 140lbs and 3+ @ 150lbs. I managed to bust out 12 on my last set. As I’ve mentioned before I feel I could keep going if I didn’t feel as if my hands might literally explode! With proper mobility work put in the Dead Lifts are getting better 🙂

Day 23 – Sugar Detox
Well I’ve made it to my “extended” last day with almost flying colors. One sugar coma on Mother’s Day and no other slip ups. I’m even trying to carry forward as much as I can. I was tempted at lunch for sure. We went to one of my fave places, Ali Baba. It’s a Mediterranean restaurant that has a wonderful lunch buffet. Lots of healthy stuff to choose from and a few not so Paleo foods that I happily steered clear from….this fried pita thing called thyme pie or something like that and rice pudding (which I LOVE). I could have cheated and taken a bite or two but I’m serious about this detox. I do feel much better than ever and I realize it’s silly how much sugar I was taking in without realizing it all because I thought I eat fairly clean. So I can only imaging how much sugar I was actually putting in my body prior to October of 2011!

Now for the exciting news…

6lbs down! Woohooo! It’s not huge because I don’t have huge amounts to lose anymore. But it’s great. And weight loss was not my ultimate goal so this is an added bonus!!!

And there ya have it peoples! Hope your Thursday has been great. If not your day isn’t over, do something super fun and crazy. Laugh a lot and smile big… It’s contagious!

Survived Day 1 – ONTO Day 2! Sugar Detoxing

Today is a good ol’ REST day! Thank goodness. It’s much needed rest. My shoulders are dead from all those Power Cleans yesterday.

I survived Day 1 of the 21-Day Sugar Detox! Woohoooo 20 days to go!!!! Wow I can’t think of it like that it seems so far away. One day at a time or my head may explode.

Yesterday around 10:30am a headache kicked in. I rarely get headaches since starting paleo so I was not happy. I choose not to take Advil or Tylenol or any relief so I just sucked it up and upped my water intake. I typically have one or two cups of coffee with my organic valley french vanilla half and half. That was of course nixed and I had two cups of TAZO REFRESH tea. As long as I didn’t focus on my headache I was ok but once I thought about it for any amount of time I was miserable! I did make it to the end of my day with no coffee and no Spark! Argh that was tough. I was good in regards to eating. I posted a picture of my snack yesterday. Lunch consisted of sirloin, spaghetti squash and some asparagus. My afternoon snack was similar to the morning. So all in all, SUCCESS. Dinner was a social night out with some ladies from the BOOM Box! Why I didn’t time this DETOX out better I don’t know, hahahah, but I was good. I had some quacamole and a fajita salad that consisted of steak and chicken fajita meat, leafy green lettuces, tomatoes, avocado, green chiles and I used salsa for my dressing. All in all my day fared well. With the exception of my annoying headache I felt a little more tired than normal but it was manageable.

Sidenote: Why is it that EVEN though I don’t eat the junky foods that I NOTICE the junky foods everywhere. I haven’t had an Oreo in 8 months or longer but I see a kid on Nurse Jackie eating them and I’m all YUMMM OREOs like Homer Simpson or something. Seriously man what is wrong with me! It’s mental, I’m mental. I did not go out and gorge myself on Oreo’s but it didn’t sound like a bad idea! hahahah.

As always I slept very well! But I did wake up starving and a creeping headache. After I showered I felt much better, ate a green tipped banana and half a chicken breast. My snack mid morning was a handful of cherry tomatoes, half chicken breast (left over from breakfast), two hardboiled eggs and 1 piece of uncured bacon. Lunch will be yesterday’s leftovers and mid afternoon snack will be similar to yesterdays snacks. I really miss my fruit! I really really do! More REFRESH tea to fill in the VOID. It’s a mint tea so it’s nice and truly refreshing! LOL.

Not sure on dinner, we have baseball practice and that sucks up a lot of time. I’m a little sluggish right now, hopefully by next week all of this sugar withdrawl will be gone. It just a little over a day it has taken a small toll on me. Nothing MAJOR but enough for me to notice.

The Challenge is ON like Donkey Kong!

And Happy Leap Year Day … whatever! LOL!

Well, I completely slept through my alarm. I was going to hit up iChoosfit this morning but I did not 😦 I know what you are thinking… she’s a crazy person! It may be true but that is beside the point. The whole point of today is I’m kicking off my 24 Day Challenge. I’ve never done the whole challenge. I’ve taken the Herbal Cleanse. I’ve taken and still do take the vitamins, supplements, etc. But I’ve haven’t taken on the 24 Day Challenge head on.

The Advocare 24 Day Challenge starts with an Herbal Cleanse. It’s 10 days of cleaning out your system and putting good whole CLEAN foods back into your body. The 14 days that follow are the MAX phase. In this part you are taking Meal Replacement Shakes, Supplements and Vitamins and Minerals. You are still eating clean, whole foods. The National average for weight loss on this program is 12-20 pounds.

I’m not coming right off the couch. I’ve been active and have lost a good chunk of weight that my body needed to get rid of. Realistically I don’t know how much weight I can or will lose. But I will keep you posted. I plan on adding updates to this blog for the next 24 days (weekends excluded most likely). It’s a good “off” workout day to kick it off.

I started my morning with the Fiber Drink. Oh man to be honest the last time I did the cleanse I had to hold my nose, close my eyes and do my best to not spit it up the Fiber Drink. I really don’t know what my issue was but this time around it wasn’t so bad. I think it’s because I have a blender bottle and it better mixes the powder. I also used super cold water! I still chugged because I recall how much trouble I had with it in the past. But this time around I could tolerate it. So yay for growing up some! I followed it with a lot of water. Not too long after that I had some lean meat, hard boiled egg and a plum. Then MORE WATER. I have my snacks planned out and ready to take on the day. Besides putting the Fiber Drink, eating the right foods, drinking water and taking the Herbal Cleanse Pill Pack tonight, it’s easy breezy for the first 3 days. Days 4-7 you don’t take the Fiber Drink. You have other supplements to take so that’s a relief (to me anyways). The whole 10 days will be easy now that I think about it. It’s all about cleaning your system and boosting your body into functioning the way it should. You should WANT to do this.

I hope y’all have a great day. Let me know if you’re interested. I’ll answer any questions you have. And Yes I’m keeping my foods PALEO. It’s not required but I’m on that journey and will stick with it.

Tomorrow is CrossFit Games Open 12.2 WOD. I’m a little scared and anxiety ridden over it! WHY? I HAVE NO FREAKIN’ CLUE!!! It’s not like I’m in the top tier of women but I still want to do good! Like I said at the beginning, I just may be slightly crazy but it’s whatever. I function well at this level 🙂

See ya’ll tomorrow!

idrankthecfkoolaid

and it's good

eating clean

No Words

It’s One of Those Days

STAY FOCUSED!

My Head is Gonna Explode, Seriously!

WHOLE30 …. 3,2,1 GO

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

September you ARRIVED so quickly!

Seriously OHS and HSPUs… my wrists are crying!

Survived Day 1 – ONTO Day 2! Sugar Detoxing

The Challenge is ON like Donkey Kong!

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