Kipping

Work, Rest, More Work, Breathe

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Last week was hectic and as I told you all, I was worn out. I couldn’t manage to roll out of bed Friday morning so I skipped out on the Boom Box. I was feeling better by the middle of the day and decided I would hit up an evening class. So glad I did. I needed it. Working out is mostly a LOVE relationship, but sometimes it’s a Love/Hate kind of thing because when you are so worn out and you don’t show up then you feel like crap for not getting that work out in! It’s not very fun. But in the end you know you need the rest. After my workout on Saturday, I declared a do nothing kind of day. That is do nothing after the boys had baseball practice! They would be gone the rest of the day. Ernie would be gone the rest of the day. So I caught up on my DVR and slept… ALOT! It was good I needed it. On the downside, I let the cakeballs get the best of me! DAMN YOU CAKEBALLS! I made sure I cleared them out by inhaling them though. There are no more living in our house. All is back to normal. May the clean eating resume. The open is near, and although I won’t be even close to the top ladies in our region I don’t want to feel like POO when doing the open WODS. Cakeballs! Grrr 😀

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2/15/13 WOD
Skill/Strength: Deadlift 3 x 3 @ 85%
I’ve never felt so good doing Deadlifts. So I’m happy to say that I feel progress in this movement. Besides my hands feeling like they are on fire, I’m not having many issues with getting the weight off the ground. Working up to 170lbs was good and doing my 3 sets of 3 were feeling really good. Hopefully a nice PR is coming up!

2/15/13 WOD

2/15/13 WOD

MetCon: 15, 12, 9 of Wall Balls and Chest To Bar
So I’m a little more flexible at the end of the day than I am at 5 am. So Wall Balls although brutal aren’t as bad on the hips in the P.M. My shoulders were not too happy with me in general but I got the job done better than I have been in the past. It’s the damn Pull Ups that still get me! Time 7:02

2/6/13 WOD
Oh holy crap, you want me to run when it’s in the 30s and you want me to run a mile coach! I really really didn’t want to show up to the BOOM Box on a Saturday morning to run but of course I couldn’t punk out. I’ve been progressing it is true in most things but running is not one of them. And everyone else’s progression is on FAST TRACK or something so I have to catch up with the group! I know, I know, it’s me vs. me but still. You see so many folks getting PRs and it’s great and awesome for them. But here I am not getting PRs or fast tracking it. So ya, I reluctantly showed up!

2/16/13 WOD

2/16/13 WOD

Skill/Strength: Front Squats EMOM for 7 minutes. 2 reps with a 3 second pause at the bottom @ 75% of our 1 RM
I haven’t tested for Front Squat in a very long time, so 75% for me was 100lbs. Coach was sure I could do more so we upped it a whopping 5lbs. By the end of the 7 minutes I could feel those 5lbs! It kind of feels good to hold the squat at the bottom for a couple of seconds. I’m not sure exactly what pauses do for you mechanically or in terms of getting stronger, but I trust they are good for you.

MetCon: Run 1 mile, 50 Power Cleans (75lbs), 30 HSPU
Running! Booooo! I started off on a slow but steady pace. My right shin is still pretty beat up so I felt that for a while with every step I took. but 2/3 of the way back my left calf and shin decided to speak up and well they were LOUD. My jog became a slow trot. It was horrible. Again another poor run performance. Something in the 11 minute mark. Everyone had been back and busting through those Cleans! I didn’t do the 75lbs, because I’m a wuss and thought I wouldn’t be able to do 50. Turns out I probably should have/could have. I caught up pretty quickly after being so behind on the run. I still don’t execute HSPU very well without being modified so I did them off the box. And that turned out to be surprisingly easy. I’m somewhere in the middle, I suppose. Which is great! HSPUs here I come! Time: 16:34

02/18/13 WOD
Whew, finally made it to this morning! It was a humid one for us, thankfully NO MetCon today! Wooooo! Eh, I do like MetCons but working on strength is fun too.

Skill/Strength: Overhead Mobility, Pull-Up Mechanics
We did some bar torture and some PVC work with Overhead Squat Mechanics. We then worked on kipping. I am tight. My upper back, shoulders and whatever else that can be tight is TIGHT! It is no fun. On the bright side of everything hurting I forget my hands hurt so I felt a little stronger when it comes to kipping. I feel a little more coordinated and hopefully I’ll get some form of a pull up SOON.

2/18/13 WOD

2/18/13 WOD

OHS 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
It’s been a long while since I’ve worked on my Overhead Squats. A long while. So I wasn’t sure what weight to start at and what weight I should end with. I decided to warm up to 65lbs. I was feeling good. I jumped from 65lbs to 75lbs because I was trying to get to 90lbs for my final set. 90lbs is my current 1RM. So I figured if I got that then I would be set for a nice PR in the future. 75lbs is where it got heavy though! Not really heavy but painful on the wrists. EVEN with my strength wraps :/ But I still went on and knocked out 80 and 85lbs. Instead of going for 90lbs, I went for 95lbs. Got the Bar overhead and panicked. I hesitated just thinking about squatting and it was an immediate MENTAL fail! Ah well. Maybe next time!

As far as food goes, it hasn’t been AWESOME but I’ve had some good moments. Like I said earlier, the CrossFit Games Open is coming up fast and I need to dial it back in with my eating. I don’t want to suck at everything more so than I already do because my eating is out of whack. So I’m reeling all the slip ups in and putting my Whole30 discipline back into action. Crossing my fingers I stick with it 😀

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Leave me a comment if you are interested in the Whole30 or have questions. Nutrition is key when trying to find good health and fitness. Not only does eating clean make you feel better in general it completely makes working out that much easier. As I routinely say, you NEED to make a CHANGE. Whether it’s jumping in the deep end of the pool or taking BABY steps like cutting out crazy beverages and just taking in Water. Make a CHANGE in your life. Without it you will always be stuck in your rut.

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Other than that, let’s hope this Monday doesn’t end up crazy. Have a great day and of course MAKE IT AWESOME!

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Skills to pay the bills – NOPE

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So if I HAD to do Pull Ups to pay bills, I would be broke forever. I have no PULL UP skills! And today was all about SKILLS, no lifting, no MetCon. Yes I know I probably should do some movement homework but I don’t. SO YES it’s my fault. I just want to get that out of the way in case some of you have some smart remarks for me 😀 It’s just defeating mentally. I’m getting better (at least for the most part) at everything else even if it’s in small increments and I’m not practicing those skills outside of the box. So why is it that Pull Ups are such a burden for me? UGH! Pull UP fairy where are you?

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Is she only using like 2 fingers to hold herself up? Crazy! I suck!

Today at the BOOM box we only worked on Pull Ups and Muscle Ups. And when I say Muscle Ups I don’t mean I really worked on those but I worked on movements that fall into line with the movement. For Pull Ups, I pretty much only worked on kipping. It hurts to hold on to the bar no matter if I have grips, or just bare hands. I know I can be a baby but come on. IT HURTS my hands. I don’t want to hold on to the bar. Regardless of the pain, I have kipping down. I could be a professional kipper maybe. I just have no UP :/

After Pull Ups, like I said MUs! UGH. I worked on Ring Dips since that is what I need to get first. And low and behold I went from using the green band to the tiny blue band. I think I will have those pretty soon. My shoulders, rotator cuff is forever sore/tight/etc. But I could manage to get some work in. Once our time was up, I really worked on my shoulder mobility. It is much needed. So I’m glad I got that in. I even worked at home on my shoulders. It’s just hard to make it a priority at home, when I have 7897897 things to do in the evenings. Still taking sponsorships so I can stay at home! I’m scared for what tomorrow brings at the box especially since today wasn’t a beat down. Although Skill work is a beatdown to me when I can’t do the skill!

Getting my Boxing On
Since I missed my WOD this past Wednesday, I decided I needed to make up for it. I can’t make the BOOM Box other than 5 am due to my commute so I hit up a semi-new Boxing franchise that has been popping up in the DFW area. They offer a free class for first time visitors, SCORE for me. Back before my boot camp and CrossFit journey, I took boxing lessons from a local Boxing/MMA club. While this was an awesome thing for me, I wasn’t committing to proper nutrition and it was hitting my pocket book pretty hard, so I took a hiatus and never returned. With that said I love boxing, not real boxing because I don’t want to get hit but boxing against a bag.

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What I liked about Title Boxing Club is that the particular instructor I had wasn’t about just having a little aerobics class. He wanted you to really throw punches, real kicks and get a workout in. He worked with everyone in regards to technique and making sure people were not half-assing it. We started with about a 15 minute warm up which consisted of running, push ups, lunges and high knees.. Small 1 minute water breaks were incorporated. 30 minutes of boxing, kick boxing, with drills in the middle. So we might do Jump Squats, Jumping Jacks, Up Downs, etc. in between boxing combinations. For the last 10-15 minutes we did a lot of core work such as sit ups, butterfly kicks, push ups, etc. Overall my boxing endurance SUCKED but it felt good to hit something! This would never be BETTER than CrossFit for me, but definitely something I would consider doing a few times a month.

What I didn’t like is that there isn’t a drop in option. You pay for a month at a time which isn’t incredibly expensive, but with their limited times, my commitment to CrossFit and kids schedules, I’m not sure if it’s worth it for me. It was a good workout, I sweat my butt off and let out some aggression. Lifting weights seems to do the trick as well but again I love boxing and doing something different was fun!

Whole(30)LIFE

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Yup I gave you the review yesterday and I am OFFICIALLY through with 30 days. And I still made my Whole30 compliant breakfast today, brought leftovers for lunch and plan on eating just the same as I have been the past 30 days. Not a big deal in my book. I worked hard for this and I’m gonna stick to it. I feel good. I don’t want to go back to feeling icky. And when it’s all said and done, FOOD doesn’t run my world, no matter how delicious, decadent or savory it can be. WholeLIFE folks!

Dinner I almost finished before I remembered to take a pic: Chopped up sirloin, mixed veggies, avocado.

Dinner I almost finished before I remembered to take a pic: Chopped up sirloin, mixed veggies, avocado.

All the positive results have been great and on top of that I LOST 8.2LBS without even trying. I wasn’t counting calories, I was eating till I was satiated. I was eating good grass-fed meats, veggies and healthy fats. 3 times a day. PWO meals if needed.

Happy Friday! It’s FEBRUARY… if you fell apart in January, start over now! Don’t throw in the towel! Be Awesome this weekend!

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See Food, Eat Food, REPEAT

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$@!$##%&*^$@#@! I can’t stop eating. Let me rephrase, I CAN’T STOP EATING CRAP! I’m in a downward spiral of bad eating. I definitely don’t need a scale to tell me how much I’ve gained. My bloated self in my ever shrinking clothes tell me daily and yet daily I stuff my face with badness. Just a little less than 2 years ago I kicked that shit in the face and now here I am eating for what? Not my health. Just eating! Is that what happens? A relapse. Back to my old self. I can’t let it go on anymore that’s for damn sure! And OH how quick the weight comes back. It sure doesn’t want to shed off that fast. It takes weeks…months even to meet the tiniest weight loss goals. But start stuffing your face and all the pounds jump right back on and get comfortable. I can’t continue to regress and be the old me. I gotta nip this in the bud and move on. Come on folks. I need some motivation. I’ve lost it!

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At least I’m still showing up to put work in at the box but I know it’s not enough. Last week was a struggle and a mental beatdown. This week is a little discombobulated due to Christmas! Which by the way was good. How was y’alls? I hope you got to hang with your loved ones and enjoy life. I ate a lot, but you KNOW this already! Back to putting in work though right? Well we had a nifty little Christmas Eve WOD – 12 Days of BOOM! And we could choose to partner up or go solo. Hehe, I’m not about to do anything of the sort on my own so I partnered up. I failed to take a picture but here was the workout:

1 HSPU
2 Pull-ups
3 Over The Box jumps 24/20”
4 OHS 95/65
5 Burpees
6 Push Press 95/65#
7 Jumping Airsquats
8 Knees to Elbows
9 Wall-Balls
10 KBS 1.5/1
11 HRPU
12 Front Squats 95/65#

Kind of like the song , 12 days of Christmas, we did 1 HSPU, then 1 HSPU and 2 Pull Ups then 1 HSPU, 2 Pull Ups, 3 Over the Box Jumps, then 1, 2, 3 and 4 OHS. Rinse and repeat and add up to 12. My partner probably did more of the work but I really tried to do my part. All the gross foods draggin me down! We came in 3rd I believe at 22:01. Not too bad. The only upside to bad eating is that I feel I have to push harder to prove bad eating doesn’t slow me down. We all know it does but I can pretend right?!?

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After Christmas Eve, we had a 2 day hiatus from the BOOM BOX. Arrived this morning to a chill BOX temperature of 37°. Really warm and welcoming! Every joint, muscle, and tendon was froze in my body. It doesn’t take long to warm up but 20° weather isn’t fun at all. Where’s my summer heat? I need you!

Skill/Strength: Pull Up work, Muscle Up Work
The bar was cold and working on kipping sucked. I tried using a pair of the kids football gloves to help keep my hands from freezing. They just made my skin hurt. It was a lose/lose situation. I typically think I do OKAY with the kipping but today I just didn’t have much in me. The extra LBS and the coldness was in my head. I was just glad for it to be over. Although it wasn’t going to get much better for the rest of the hour.

12/27/12 WOD

12/27/12 WOD

MetCon: 5 minutes AMRAP of 200m run, 15 Toes To Bar, rest 2 minutes 5 minutes AMRAP of 200m run, 15 HR Push Ups
Come on Coach you know it’s cold outside! My face was burning from the cold! It doesn’t make me run faster because it’s cold outside. I really did try to get in and out but holy geesh when my insides are freezing from all the cold air, I just couldn’t go fast. My TTB ended up being Knees to Elbows, kind of, sort of. I made it through 1 round and 1 run. It was ugly. The second round was a LITTLE BETTER as I can do PUSH UPS with a little more ease than anything hanging from the bar. I only said I did a little better. It was so hard to breathe after the first run. My nose is running and impairing my breathing. I made it through two full rounds, went out for a 3rd run but didn’t make it back in time so it doesn’t count. Sad Sad Sad.

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That’s it for today y’all. It’s cold, I’m a mess and I need food help! I apologize for the depressing post. Last week was looking up by Friday and now it’s all blah all over again. There’s a big ol defrosted free range chicken waiting at home to be cooked. The good food is there, I’ve just been choosing to ignore it. Gotta put my blinders back and get to work! I’m scared to jump on the SUGAR DETOX but I have to do it. I will DO IT. And I will be AWESOME at it! Have an amazing day and let your awesome shine!

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Playing Catch Up

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

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

11/23/12 WOD

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

Football News

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

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

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

11/26/12 WOD

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

11/27/12 WOD

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

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

Become ONE with the (pull up) BAR

Ya not so much today but getting there I guess… just really slowly. I’m such a wussbag. But in the long run, my tolerance to hanging on the bar has gotten better. It still starts to hurt before too long but not as quickly as it once did.

This morning at the BOOM Box we worked on ring rows and pull up skills. We first did MAX REP ring rows x 3. I dutifully started out RX with my legs straight and felt fine. Coach came over and corrected the width of my arms and well my RX straight legs went out the window. I had to bend my knees for the remainder of rows. I managed to get 13, 8 and then 6. Not bad but not good either.

6/4/12 WOD

We moved on to max pull ups. So far I’ve been a slacker on my pull up work and my max with the green band has been 5. I busted a whopping 6 today! It’s better than the 3 I started off with a couple of months ago I suppose. After our MAX we worked on kipping and all the work that goes into that. I’m much better at kipping but still lack the strict pull up strength to get my chin over that bar. By now my hands hurt. I’m done. I did not become ONE with the bar. Another day.

MetCon: 8 rounds of 20 sec run, 10 sec rest with 35lb bumper. So it’s a TABATA of running! Yay for running! 😦
We had 10 yards marked out with cones. We had 20 seconds to get as many lengths as we could, then rest for 10 seconds. At each cone we had to touch the ground with the weight. Keeping count wasn’t so bad today for some reason. Overall distance 32 full lengths. Although I was struggling at the end and at a loss for catching my breath my recovery time wasn’t so bad. Maybe I am getting better at this thing called running (sprinting, jogging, etc.). Maybe today was just a fluke!

Weekend Happenings, Eating, and Rambling
We are pretty much fuddy duddies as of late. Maybe because we had a break in baseball and we just needed to chill and maybe cause we are flat out lazy! Hehehe. I did make it out to Homestead Farms on Saturday and my slacker old self didn’t take one picture. It didn’t even cross my mind, new place, new people, FORGETFUL FRANK! If you live in the Keller area it’s not a bad place to check out. They have grassfed beef, pasture chicken and pork. They also have raw goat’s milk from their own goats there on the farm. There was a varied selection of seasonal vegetables, all pesticide free. They carry an assortment of beef jerky, almond butters and other items I can not clearly remember. Pictures would be helpful right now! I ended up walking out with a couple of yellow onions, a few peaches (yummo), raspberries, and beef jerky. The had some chickens outside the back of their store for people to go see. It was a cute place. reasonable priced and in the middle of suburbia. It was a little out of the way for us to make a regular trip but if you are in the area it’s a good place to visit!

My eating habits weren’t right on point but not too bad at all. We were pretty boring… nothing fancy. I did eat those peaches though. They were perfect! And I went ahead and ate a yogurt parfait and La Madeliene because an omelet just didn’t sound good at the time. I didn’t feel any ramifications from eating dairy and fruits so I felt ok with my decision.

I don’t have much to ramble about really, it just flowed well in my subtitle. Heheh. I did stumble across this blogger who shares her struggles about her kiddo and his health, behavioral issues and how removing gluten and dairy from his diet helped him tremendously. Check it out at: http://mypickyglutenfreekid.blog.com/

Enjoy this MONDAY! Make it fantabulous and be awesome at it!

HOPE is NOT GIVING UP!

WOW. Just watched the video below and all I can say is WOW! A young girl with no HOPE overcomes autoimmune disease by getting strong and eating clean. LOVE IT! I hope you do too.

Whatever sickness ails you I beg you to just go Paleo/GrainFree/Etc for 30 days. You may or may not have a serious illness. It might just be that nagging migraine or an achy body even when you are inactive. I challenge you to take on 30 days of grain free. Then get moving physically. I don’t care if it’s CrossFit, walking around the block or doing a workout at your local gym, JUST GET MOVING! Feel free to ask any questions. I’m more than happy to help!

Also check this awesome person Melissa Knourek. She is definitely inspiring and proves we all can DO ANYTHING!

WOD

5/4/12 WOD

Now on to my sad morning at the BOOM Box! I feel like such a slacker after watching and reading about the Ladies in the video and article!!! LOL. At least I’m showing up right? Haha. So it was work on kipping today. Woo fun… NOT, esp not after my hands are dead from yesterday’s TTB. Coach suggested gloves so I got gloves and the jury is still out on this one. My hand were still tender from yesterday so I don’t think any amount of protection was going to help. Overall they felt weird and SWEATY. I can handle sweat but when I feel like my hands are trapped in sweat I have issues. I’m a weirdo I know. So maybe next week I’ll have a better review. I forgot to take pics of these fancy new gloves as well, but I hope to have one for ya next week. So kipping went fine besides the dreadful hand pain. I’m just not strong enough for a pullup so we just worked on the technique.

Our MetCon was all running today. Nice to have a break but I DON’T LIKE THE RUNNING! Today just wasn’t fun for me! I’m sure you’re wondering what it is I do like because it seems as if I don’t like anything! Hehehe. But I still do it because I do feel good afterwords, sometimes, mostly, you get the point! Back to running! It consisted of 3 rounds of 800m run with a 2 minute rest in between. My first run was 3:56. WOOO ME. I typically run a little over 4 minutes. My next run was 4 minutes 3 seconds. Still not too bad. Our goal was to keep consistent. So far so good. Got my 2 minutes rest but my 3rd run ended up in some walking. I got one of those horrid side stitches. I tried running through the pain but it just got worse. And deep breaths made it worse. I had to stop. My last run was more than 5 minutes 😦 … Total time 17 minutes. It hurt I didn’t care at that moment but I really wish I could have tested my limits on that last run.

 

Sugar Detox Update

Day 4 started today. I totally kicked Day 3’s butt! I was little groggy and dragging the first part of the day but I felt much better the rest of the day. I woke up this morning with zero headache and even though mentally I wanted to stay in bed, physically I was feeling good. I think I’m on the upside right now but I’m not making any promises! I still have a long way to go. I had roasted chicken for dinner, steam broccoli and sauteed asparagus and mushrooms in bacon fat – YUMMO! I did add some balsamic vinegar to my asaparagus. NOT REALLY sure if it’s ok on the 21-Day Sugar Detox program. I think it is but ya, it wasn’t a ton of it and I’m pretty sure it’s legit. Today should be good. I have all my foods prepared. It’s the weekend I FEAR! We are always on the go and in a rush. Just pray I make good decisions!

It’s the weekend folks. Play Outside and RUN around like a 5 year old! Enjoy it. I’ll see y’all next week!

Mastering the Rope Climb … Not So Much!

3/6/12 WOD

The day finally came for me at the BOOM Box where I’m going to have to attempt to climb the ROPE! The dreaded rope that has been just a decoration and not included in any days that’s I’ve shown up for a WOD. But today it’s there on the board for skill/strength. My whole self is not sure what will become but I need to learn right? If I ever want to be competitive in the CrossFit world (YEARS from now), then I need to have rope climbs under my belt. I’ve never had to climb a rope, net, etc. I’ve never desired to do such things either. So this is all new to me. Grant gives us the breakdown on how to use our feet because it’s truly your legs that get you up there but I’m still not so sure I’m able to do this. I watch Josh and Joe go up like monkeys. No problem, EASY even so I’m a little hopeful for maybe 2 seconds and then it’s my turn. WOW it’s not so easy. I pretty much suck. Grant goes over what I’m doing wrong and I leave it be. After watching Josh and Joe go again I figure I gotta try it again and I do. I’m much more successful at this attempt. I don’t even think I got half way up but I got the mechnics of it down. It takes a toll on my hands for sure. I don’t have good grip strength as it is and the rope hurts cause I’m a big ol bag of wuss. No need to think it to yourself. It’s true. Say it out loud! Either way, I attempted, failed, attempted again and had some success. I’m sure the ROPE will plague me from here on out. We proceeded to work on kipping technique which by now my hands really hurt so kipping just sucks in general but I feel confident now and soon, VERY soon I know I will have kipping pull ups down.

Maybe if I had a beach I would be better! Hehe!

I was rather relieved to finish killing my hands and move on to the MetCon until the second lap of our 800m run. Uphill twice just kills me. I estimated it would take me 4-5 minutes and I was finished in less than 4. After the 800m run we had to do 30 HR push ups, 60 butterfly situps, 30 HR push ups and finish with another 800m run. Today’s pushups were WEAK! I drug them out more than ever and I felt loserish doing them. Fortunately I picked up the pace with the situps so I could hurry up and suck at push ups again. The front of my shoulders were tight and fatigue came on fast. My last run was slow and brutal as well. I wasn’t looking at the time when I left so I don’t know HOW slow I was but I was slow. Time 14:03

That’s a wrap for Tuesday. Tomorrow is a rest day. I need to get on finding new creations to cook. I saw these beautiful orange beets on Sunday, so I gotta see what I can do with them because well I’ve never cooked a beet! And after reading the Hunger Games Series where they seem to have a lot of beets, I feel inspired to cook some. We’ll see how it goes.

Not mine but looks close 🙂

Woohoo it’s Wednesday! (and more yummy goodness)

I feel really good today! I think getting back on track eating wise over the past few days has greatly helped me! After the cake ball frenzy before Christmas I continued to eat stocking stuffer candies and what not. I wasn’t too over the top as I was with the pizza and cookies but it was still MORE than I should have consumed in general. And after a couple of days of CLEAN eating I’m already feeling better.

1/04/12 WOD

The BOOM Box did not fail me and I had a great WOD. We worked on kipping and pullups after our warmup. I have the kipping down pretty good considering I suck at pullups. I stole Ernie’s “hand guard” thingies (like the ones gymnasts use) and those helped me out tremendously. I’m such a wussbag when it comes to hanging onto that bar! I’m so close at getting that kipping pullup. I can taste it! I want it so badly but I guess not badly enough to practice at home! Ha! I have to make the effort to work on those at home but I just don’t 😦 So after the kipping practice we had to do 3 sets of 5 strict pullups. I managed to get a few in with just the BLUE band (smallest band there is at our box) then I doubled up blue bands and finished out the reps. It’s hard work but I AM GETTING THERE!

And the MetCon was fantastic! Did I just say it was fantastic? Wow I may have suffered a blow to the head and I don’t recall! With the exception of a few NO REPS on my wall balls, I think I did well. Did I tell you I despise wall balls? Did I also tell you they are my enemy? Hehehe, Yes I know I did, I just wanted to make sure you’re following along! So 7 rounds of 7 wall balls, 7 ring rows and 200m run on rounds 2, 4 and 6. The fatigue really kicked in after the second run. Not sure if it was the cold air in my lungs that was bringing me down or just overall loss in arm strength. Round 6 was weak, but I finished strong in round 7 for an overall finish of 8:45.

Last night Ernie started his new 7pm Box time versus waking up early and being miserable….so I had some time to myself to play with my food processor and get dinner going. The shredding disc on my processor is AMAZING! In no time I had shredded zucchini and carrots! And I loved it. The kids were rather impressed as well! Now that I have shredding down, the plan was to make faux latkes and that is what I did. They fell apart a little too easy so next time I will add more egg to hold them together. I used grapeseed oil to cook them in and the taste was nice. Not sure how “paleo” grapeseed oil is because I haven’t done much research. It’s in several recipes I used but like you know by now there are varying lines of thought on “paleo”. Overall they came out great! Along with my latkes I baked some chicken and steamed a little broccoli. A nice light dinner 🙂

Dinner and testing out "latkes"

I’m a blog troll who randomly finds recipes from oddball places but I found this following recipe from Paleo Parents. I troll their blog regularly and like them on Facebook so this recipe “glowed” at me. And I knew I had to try it out.

A new treat Chocolate Banana Bites!

Dark Chocolate Banana Bites

2 bananas
5 eggs
3/4 C coconut oil
1/2 C maple syrup, we recommend Grade B
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 C almond flour (or coconut flour if you’re nut-free)
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 Tbsp cinnamon

1/2 C dark chocolate chips

Using an electric mixer or food processor, combine all of the wet ingredients (bananas should smooth out)
♥ In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips
While mixing on low, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until just combined
♥ Sir in chocolate chips to the dough
♥ Using a silicon mini muffin pan or mini muffin liners on a metal pan, scoop the dough until almost full into mini muffin pans
Cook at 350 for 10 minutes

Makes 4 dozen; store chilled and let come to room temperature before serving or eating. This is a super easy recipe and perfect for letting kids help (♥)!

I had a super mini muffin pan and I felt like these just weren’t very pretty but they tasted just fine! I also have a 6 count mini muffin silicone pan that I have never used and it ended up being just perfect! I had to cook those a little longer, closer to 20 minutes but truly I don’t recall. I watched them for a while but I just don’t remember the exact timing. My apologies for being a slacker. A win from the kids and a SUPER WIN from Ernie as he devoured many of the super mini bites!

I’m glad I have another “treat” in my bag of recipes.

I hope y’all have a great day. See ya tomorrow! Woooooohooooo!