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Hangin’ In There

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It’s been a busy couple of days in my little world. But we are making it work and I’m still showing up for evenings at the BOOM Box. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to 5 a.m.! I know I need to just for the sake of having evenings free for doing all the things the boys schedules require. But it sure is nice to be awake during my workouts!

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And in regards to a busy life, YES I have fallen prey to excuses and pure laziness. In my eating habits, I have become increasingly better but I can definitely still feel in my joints from all the poor eating whether I partake in it once or day or ALL day. It takes a toll on the body. Everything is inflamed. I once lived in a day to day world of dirty eating. You get used to the aches, pains, sleepiness, headaches, etc… You write them off as getting older, not enough sleep, and numerous other excuses. I can honestly attest to the fact that those aches and pains go away when you eat clean and move your body.

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The SORENESS from working out doesn’t ever go away but that’s not a PAIN that plagues you. That’s a sign of getting stronger. And you keep moving and eating clean and the soreness does fade away AND the joints get better, your mood gets better, sleep gets better. Do I need to get back to that HAPPY place? YES HELL YES! Should you give it a whirl for 30 days, 3 months, a year… DEFINITELY! Will you fall down? Probably but who really knows but you. Your mind and body will fail you but it’s up to you to get back up and back on it. I’m sitting here in the corner like a sulking kid knowing that I’m hurting myself and it sucks. So I’m trying to get back there – back to feeling good, to performing well and to eating clean. It’s like starting all over except for the fact that I know the reward at the end. For those of you who haven’t made the decision to change, it’s hard to imagine what 30 days can do for you. Get up and get moving. Cut out bread one week. Cut out artificial sweeteners the next week. Or just jump in the deep end and go strict. It’s up to you. You know YOU. Make a better version of YOU!

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Below are some links that I found interesting this week. I’m going to try and share more of what I read more often. I tend to read a lot of info and then just digest it for me. Sharing is Caring!

http://www.naturalnews.com/040325_Splenda_diabetes_artificial_sweeteners.html

http://eattoperform.com/2013/03/15/the-gradually-awesome-approach-april-simmons-blackford/

http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/is-the-juice-worth-the-squeeze-how-to-get-more-with-less-in-your-workouts

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As far as recaps. I’ll be short and sweet. I have 4 days to go over and I’m sure you don’t want to die of boredom reading them! So here goes it. By the way, all of the following WODS, I have sucked at! Which in the end should mean I will be getting better but this past week has been weakness after weakness for me. It’s defeating but I keep showing up.

5/9/13
Skill/Strength: SKIN the CAT and DU PracticeI can not skin the cat. I am horrible at this and my shoulders are dead. I felt super loserish because I was the only one who couldn’t do it at the 6pm time slot :/

I can however do Double Unders like a champ and worked on Triple Unders. Other than the one time I got ONE a few weeks ago, I can not manage to get another!

5/9/13 WOD

5/9/13 WOD

MetCon: Run 3 x 800m, rest 3 minutes in between run, 25 burpee penalty if over 21 minutesShould be an easy goal. Just run all 3 800m in less than 4 minutes. That didn’t quite happen. Poor attitude towards running = POOR RUNNING! I was horrible and not getting better. 25 burpees went really slow after all that running.

5/11/13 Community WOD
If I had known about the workout ahead of time I wouldn’t have shown up! More running! My poor partner, Eric, had to deal with my slow running!

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Max Effort Sit Ups and Push Ups

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Bar Hold and Push Up Hold (negative points if you fall from bar or drop to knees)

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Max Effort of KB Swing and Jumping Air Squats

With my sub-par running I wasn’t able to get many reps. And I dropped from the Bar Hang which is -5 points. All in all we didn’t do too shabby I guess finishing with 243 reps.

5/11/13 WOD

5/11/13 WOD

5/13/13
Skill/Strength: Back Squat 3, 3, 3+ at 70%, 80%, 90% 2 min rest between set
Today it all felt heavy. But I ended with 5 reps at 90%. I literally forgot how to breathe today and was holding my breath way too much. Once I would breathe, the lifts were much easier! Duh!

5/13/13 WOD

5/13/13 WOD

MetCon: 21-15-9 of Toes to Bar and Ring Dips (modified Straight Let Sit Ups and HR Push Ups)
I’ve established that I can do TTB even if it’s one at a time but Ring Dips are a no go. So I busted out TTB one at a time like a beast with only a few NO REPS. And I rested too much on push ups! On my last round of TTB I ripped and it hurted! Bad! So bad that I didn’t show up for Tuesdays WOD. Time: 9:39

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5/15/13Skill/Strength: 5 x 3 Pendlay Rows, 5 x 3 Floor Press, 3 x 5 band weighted pull ups
Pendlay Rows are awkard for me and it’s been a while but I worked up to 95lbs so that felt good. It feels like it’s been FOREVER since we did Floor Press so I wasn’t sure what I could handle. Again we worked up to 95lbs. By the 5th set I was struggling to get all 3 reps but again I knocked them out and was feeling strong after being weary. Instead of weighted pull ups and cause of my wounded hand I opted for Ring Rows. So we would start up with chest to rings and slowly lower ourselves down over a 10count pace before lifting back up. These were easier than negative hang pull ups but still sucked!

5/15/13 WOD

5/15/13 WOD

MetCon: 2 rounds of Max Reps of Push Ups 90 seconds, Pull Ups 90 seconds, Rest 30 secondsAbout 30 seconds in on Push Ups my left shoulder was in pain. I sucked it up as best I could but only managed 39 reps. INFLAMMATION from crappy foods. As far as pull ups. I knew I wasn’t going to get many so I went ahead and used the green band and did the best I could. 9 reps. My hand held up pretty well the first round. Towards the end my forearms were dying. For the second round I busted out 10 push ups really nicely and fell apart from there. I completed 31 reps. Moved to Pull Ups and may hand was just hurting. Only completed 6. Total: 70 Push Ups, 15 Pull Ups

It’s almost Friday! WOOOOOO! If you are in the DFW metroplex… CrossFit Boom is having a party tomorrow night. Come out and have some food, fun and more fun! Go out and move! And you know the drill… BE AWESOME TOO!

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Drive

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Want to, desire, dreams, etc. It all boils down to what makes you tick. What are your goals and what are you doing to make them come to fruition. I’m a lot of talk I know with a mixed bag of happy and negative. I do put in work thought. I do know I tend to come across negative all the time on this here blog but I can tell you I’m not always negative. I’ve gone through all of this before in some form or fashion too but I figure it doesn’t hurt to talk about it again. I have 3 boys that I’ve put my life into. And what kind of men will they grow up to be if I was always raining on their parade. Truth is I have a great life. My world is complete. I don’t really need a pull up to have a happier life. I don’t really need to squat 200+ pounds but I want to! I really want to. How bad do I want it though is another question. Not bad enough to work on that stuff for hours daily. Clearly I show up to the Boom Box almost everyday and clearly I have made progress but I’m not winning the CrossFit games because I finally got a pull up. I don’t have the time, drive or want to actually focus on a goal that big. My goal is to be fit and healthy. GOAL ACHIEVED.

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The rest of it is me nitpicking myself. The shoulda, coulda, wouldas in life. For me it’s always been 8000 of those little vain thoughts that plague me regularly. (stretch marks, jiggle, cellulite) They bring/brought me down. The didn’t allow me to love me for me sometimes. It was so bad I used to let those things hold me back from wanting to work out in public. I think maybe because once I was lean and fit and naive to body image. Then I became a much larger me. I was never so obese that I gave up, but I definitely got heavy and have never been comfortable with myself since.

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I’ve worked on my mental side a lot and I’m a different person now in a lot of ways. I don’t obsess over the scale anymore. I’m not trying to revert back to the young, skinny me either. I’ve come a long way letting those things go but I’m starting to think they will always be there in some form or fashion, because I sure would like to feel comfortable in a swim suit. I doubt I ever will. And no I’m not searching for the YOU LOOK GREAT surface compliments cause I do KNOW what I look like. I’m not hiding behind something only to be all “hey I LIED look at me.” I’m just letting y’all know I’m still haunted by body image but at the end of the day I am living healthier than ever. I’m stronger than ever. And I’m hopefully teaching my boys to live that way the best they can.

And currently I mostly just want to put in the work at CrossFit (even if I still suck at it), eat healthy and laugh a lot! Cause laughing is good for everyone. Go ahead make someone laugh. Watch some funny stuff on the youtubes. Enjoy life.

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With that said. It was hard for me to enjoy life this morning. The workout was not my favorite. I could have slept in. It was pouring rain. It was cold. And it was Muscle Ups… aka PULL UPs for those of us who don’t have MUs. Thrusters. Bleh and Toes To Bar! Go back to bed!

But nooooo…. I knew if I slept in on my weaknesses then how the hell am I going to get any better. So I dragged in. The best part of the morning was Deadlift work! Woooo.

Skill/Strength: 3, 3, 3+ @ 70%, 80% and 90% of our 1RM. For me it was 150lbs, 170lbs, and 195lbs. My hands are weak, my grip is crap. I don’t know why I have such a low tolerance to pain in my hands. Needless to say I did fine working up to my last set. And 195lbs is not longer HARD. But holy heckola it hurts my hands. I’m confident I could do more reps but my hands are cringing in pain. I hold on for 6 reps. I was hoping for 4 so I felt A-OK!

4/18/13 WOD

4/18/13 WOD

MetCon: 3 rounds of 3 Muscle Ups, 8 Thrusters (115lbs/75lbs) and 13 TTB. For me it was 9 Pullups instead of MUs. Ugh. I have the lonely green band set up because that’s my progress. And for a second I thought I only had to do 3 reps. It’s on the board 3 reps. Then realized oh shit, I must do 9! I did sets of 3 and my first two sets were great. My last set I struggled. I got to the barbell for Thrusters and pretty much wanted to quit. I did ONE and dropped the bar. Still not sure why but I did. Then I did 3, dropped the bar and did 4 before moving on. I KNEW I could do TTB so I approached them like I did for the Open. Get up there, get it done, drop. Get right back up, get it done, drop and so forth. It worked. Although 13 drops is not fun. And then it was back to Pull Ups for round 2. Coach had already pulled the blue band for me and set it up because my last 3 Pull Ups were horrible but I OPTED to go for green only! Look at me! Who knew I would make that decision. I was going along and got 3, then I had that crunchy pain feeling. My right hand was ripping.

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I changed my hand position a little to salvage it the best I could and fought through. Onto Thrusters and this time I was going to go unbroken. At least I told myself that and it worked! Round 2 of Thrusters = Success. But now it was time to get on the bar again for TTB. And I chugged along one at a time. Then the left hand started to rip. And now I was just hurting. But I still had one more round of Pull Ups. I went for green band only AGAIN but could only muster 1 Pull Up with my hands falling apart. So I took a pause and got that blue band in the mix. It was much easier but my hands were hurting. Got to Thrusters and oh I didn’t want to drop the bar but I did after 3 reps. Dang it! Picked it back up and knocked out the last 5. Oh how I was dreading TTB. My hands were not happy. And I managed to knock out 10 in what seemed like good time. It was the last three that took me over 3 minutes to accomplish. I coudn’t help but focus on my wounded palms. I got a lot of NO REPS because I have a dumb left foot that doesn’t want to touch the bar! But finally after 20+ grueling minutes I finished. Done son. Can I go back to bed? Time: 21:33.

I’m tired and achy and my hands hurt. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. But this gloomy cold weather has got to go. I’m in TEXAS, it should be blistering hot already. I’m trying to overcome my Eeyore syndrome but today it is hard. I’m looking for the AWESOME I promise. So go be AWESOME yourself and LAUGH!

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