MetCon

Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Where oh where has this year gone? I am truly Thankful for just surviving day in and day out. That I’m blessed with my GREAT family and even you might think I’m just too whiny on this good ol blog that I’m really not that much of a downer! I enjoy everything and everyone in my life. I hope everyone does take the time to reflect on their blessings whether they be small or large. Happy Thanksgiving!

Now onto my BOOM Box morning of which I am thankful for as well. Being a CrossFit Junkie is made much easier when you love your box and the people in it. It’s not a chore to get up at 5am and get my butt whooped. I look forward to it unless of course my muscles are dying then I’m a little scared!

Skill/Strength: Press 5, 5, 5
Goal here was to get close to your max by your last set. I know my max is 70lbs… been stuck here forever and not sure why! But it is what it is. So after warming up I started at 55lbs. Not so bad. Moved up to 60lbs and still not so bad. Went for 65lbs for my last set and even then I only struggled on the last 2 but still “knew” I would get it up. Now I’m curious as to what my new PR could be!

11/21/12 WOD

MetCon: 100 KB swings (1POOD), 75 Jumping Air Squats and 50 Hand Release Push Ups
Seriously?!? My hips and legs are smoked from KAREN and 1.5 miles of running…errr… walking/jogging. We did work on some hip mobility but after doing the 100KB swings I was definitely fatigued. I knocked out 55 UNBROKEN, then started losing the forearms. Took a small break, knocked out 5, 15, 25. Don’t even get me started on the Jumping Air Squats. I was smoked. My legs are dead, my hips are dead and now my back is chiming in. Took me a lot longer than it probably should have if I were feeling 100% but I chipped away. Finally got to the HR Push Ups. I feel like I knocked these out alright. About halfway through my right shoulder started shouting at me but that’s gonna happen! Time: 11:14

On another note: Some giveaways may be on the horizon so there’s something to be excited about! Wooooo for free stuff!

Have a fabulous Holiday Weekend! Be AWESOME and support Pop Warner Football Team Arlington Thunder if you can… right here!

Pistols, Dead Hangs and Burpees

Will I ever be able to do a Pistol (ONE LEGGED SQUAT) with ease? I feel that will never happen. My right leg is my most hopeful and I aspire to be a PISTOL-PRO one day but I don’t know that my left leg and more importantly my left IT band will ever allow me to do so. We worked on Pistols and the progressions that go with it this morning. And it’s not like pull ups where I DREAD working on them, it’s just frustrating that it’s not an easy movement for me! You can google Pistols and CrossFit and see people all over doing them.

They do them with a barbell overhead, they do them balancing on things such as kettlebells and they are done balancing on kettlebells with a barbell overhead! Seriously? My feet would die. My body would just collapse! Anyone else in my boat? Probalby not! Y’all are all a bunch of PISTOL freaks aren’t ya?

MetCon: 10 minutes of 3 Burpees EMOM and Sit Up Holds and Dead Hangs with remainder of minute alternating minutes.
I really wasn’t sure how to gauge this workout. 3 burpees at a time, not a problem. Probably the only time I’ll think burpees are just fine. Sit up hold on odd minutes, not a problem. DEAD HANGs – Houston we have a problem! I’m not the best at hanging from a bar. My hands are delicate like a flower.

My grip is at best laughable. I was worried. Scores were based on drops. So in this case LOW score is good, HIGH score is bad! 5 minutes of Dead Hangs though, I should have this in the bag. Plus there’s burpees so it’s not even a whole minute right? Well I really had to work the whole mindset and just try to find a happy place and I did just that for the first 2 Dead Hang minutes, then on the 3rd I had to drop about 20 seconds in. My hands were dying. On the 4th round I went strong and held on for dear life but my brain left me stranded on the last round and I dropped probably 15 seconds in. I’ll have to admit this was probably my best in regards to pushing out pain and just finding a peace. It still hurt like a MO’FO though. My score was 2. I’m alright with that.

11/15/12 WOD

Food News: Still eating good but still eating like crap as well. I’m really blaming this on the time change, cooler weather and football wearing me out. I have been cooking good foods but also making poor food choices in the evenings. It’s so damn hard mentally for me right now. Feel free to come pop me in the back of the head and tell me to straighten up. It’s a necessary evil!

It’s be Thursday and almost the weekend! Hope y’all have been enjoying your fall! It’s the perfect time to take long walks, play outside with your kids or friends. Go play Disc Golf or a friendly game of football at the park! And you know it …. Be Awesome!

I’m done with the COLD already

And it’s only just begun! I know it’s only the second morning with temps in the 30s but it makes it really hard to get out of bed! And it makes it really hard to want to go hit the box early in the A.M.!

Skill/Strength: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 Back Squat
The goal was to start heavy and work towards a PR. If any of you recall I had an “accidental” PR with my squat cause I’m a dingleberry who used her DEADLIFT max to base her SQUAT %! Who does that? Yup that’s right – me :/ So I got a 10lb PR at 155lbs. This morning I set up my attempts so that 150lbs was my 3rd squat. That was fine so I decided to go for 160lbs on my 4th rep. FAIL-EO! I still felt like I had it in me so I went for my 5th rep at 160lbs again. Coach had to give me like an ounce of support for me to get up. I know I can do it without that but today it didn’t happen! Finally I’m making gains, and I LIKE IT!

11/13/12 WOD

MetCon: FRAN (collective sigh, grunt, etc.)
If you have no clue about CrossFit then you don’t know how brutal FRAN can be! FRAN is a dirty girl workout and a well known benchmark for CrossFitters all over. It’s 21-15-9 of Thrusters and Pullups. And it’s a go balls to the wall kind of workout! The really great folks have this workout COMPLETED in the 2 minute range. I don’t even think I can DREAM of such achievements anytime soon. For me it’s band assisted pull ups that I STILL suck at and typically I can do the RX 65lb Thruster but I’m still having shoulder issues so I was given 15lb dumbbells. I was able to do all the Thrusters unbroken, if it were otherwise then I think something would seriously be wrong with me. Unfortunately I was not able to do Pull Ups unbroken, those are miserable and the BAR was FREEZING! Time: 7:50

It’s a REST DAY tomorrow. I’m hoping I can catch up on some cooking/cleaning that needs to get done. I know I’ve been slacking at the posts but we’ve been so busy and I don’t have any wonderful INSPIRATION or RECIPES for you at the moment. And I feel I can only tell everyone to SUCK IT UP, TOUGHEN UP and DO SOMETHING GOOD for YOURSELF like EATING CLEAN and LIFTING HEAVY SHIT before you all run away cause you are sick and tired of those kinds of posts. At this point I wish I could just hibernate till Spring! Until Thursday…. BE AWESOME!

Day of Blah!

It’s just one of those days where you just rather crawl back into bed, call in sick and sleep or watch mindless tv. Too bad that I can’t just do that. I probably COULD but it wouldn’t be a wise decision in general. I also made the mistake of weighing myself and that does no good for anybody if you know it’s probably going to be bad.

I’ve been feeling thick, heavy, squishy, etc. And as good as I have been not worrying about the “number” on the scale I just couldn’t help myself. Backslider I am! I know why I did it…I’m having a hard time cleaning up dinners and also probably not eating enough in the day. And I totally splurged at my kids fundraiser last night at CiCi’s pizza. Over a year I haven’t been in a place like that and what do I do? Chow down like it’s a show down! And it’s not even GOOD! Wasn’t even worth it. So in my guilt I figured I’d weigh. WHY? Cause misery loves company. Even after the BOOM Box I still sit here feeling bleh.

Skill/Strength: Muscle Up Practice
I’m nowhere near a Muscle Up but coach made a good point that the progression work we do applies to a lot of different movements. It’s not like I don’t know that but sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that when all you read is MU practice. I can do one thing at a time but when it comes to piecing it all together my brain goes wonky!

11/7/12 WOD

MetCon: HELEN – 3 rounds of 400m run, 21 KB Swings, 12 Pullups
This is my second time to do Helen. It was over a year ago and believe it or not I documented it. I used a black (THICK) band for pullups and a tiny Kettlebell. This time around I used 1POOD for the KB and did ring rows instead of pullups. If it weren’t for sucking at the runs I probably would have fared better. One day I won’t be writing about being horrible at running, I just have no will to want to be better at it at the moment. It obviously doesn’t help I was a piglet last night. Last year’s results: 14:17 This years results: 12:00 I seriously thought I would have fared better. I couldn’t remember my time from last year so it was a good thing I at least beat it! But after looking back I wish I had done A LOT BETTER instead of just better. Helen we shall meet again and hopefully it will be RX’d! and FASTER!

Foods: So I shared my major fail and I still can’t manage to clean everything up in general. I’m much better and getting closer to what my once disciplined self was but still not there yet. And in my whole struggle my oldest kiddo declared last night he knows he needs to straighten up the foods he eats and wants to do strict paleo starting Friday! I was like REALLY? STRICT? He says yes and well he’s 13 so that could change but just that little bit of enthusiasm helps me want to get back to being disciplined. I don’t know why mentally I just want to rebel but I do and I guess I’m finally getting over it. I had the scale to help me along. I guess it’s just a phase and it’s not the end of the world and I know it’s not hard to do the right things and I still manage to eat clean a good majority of the time. I’m just hard on myself which is part of it. I’m responsible for me and I have to own it. I need to tighten up the dinners and weekends and I’m good.

Now I just need a nap. In addition to eating poorly I slept poorly. I decided staying up late and watching American Horrow Story and Nashville were better options than SLEEP and now I am paying for it. Let’s all hold hands and pray that I get some sleep and stop eating crappy dinners! Hahah, THANKS! It’s almost FRIDAY folks! Let’s BE AWESOME!

Struggling Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Happy Wednesday

Ya and Halloween too. I dress up for work or any party that I may go too but not a real big celebrator of the day. And I did make the effort to get up on my REST day and go to the BOOM Box dressed up and WOMP WOMP, no one else dressed up! Ah well. C’est la vie!

Skill/Strength: Pull Up Work
Definitely a NEED in my world but so hard for me to WANT to do it and I never put the practice in :/ So we worked on some dead hangs and kipping. I suck at Dead Hangs. Kipping has come for me pretty easily, I just need the PULL UP part. I for sure need to make myself do Pull Up homework.

10/31/12 WOD

MetCon: TABATA of Situps, Mountain Climbers and Strict Press
Situps I don’t mind. Mountain Climbers I despise! and Strict Press to finish it was brutal. We weren’t even halfway through the Mountain Climbers and my right shoulder was fading fast. By the time our rounds for Press were about to start I was toast. RX was 65lbs, my 1RM is 70lbs so I chose to do 55lbs. Should be challenging but not horrible. Uh did I mention BRUTAL already?!? I don’t remember how my rounds broke down, I know for certain I didn’t even get the bar up on one round and I only got 2 reps on another round. We scored this Tabata for total reps and I finished with 26. I really expected more but there just wasn’t MORE!

Food NON-Update: Still a slacker on what to make with pumpkin. Hopefully tonight I’ll get motivated.

It’s a short post today. I know some of y’all are thinkin “WHEW!” hahaha. I’m just happy the bees are gone… we hope. Got a little bit of honey but not a lot considering we could have probably shared with all of DFW. Bee guy takes it all :/ But now hopefully our neighbors won’t hate us. Have a great day. And of course you know the drill – BE AWESOME!

Can’t get over the whole bee thing!

 

BuZZy Buzzy BEEE!

Happy Happy Tuesday y’all! If it’s not happy, I hope it gets better for you out there. Before I get to my BOOM Box recap I just wanted to be a quick source of tell it like it is for all of you thinking about leading a healthier lifestyle whether you’re just thinking about it or off and on like I’ve been lately. So it’s also a pop in the head for me, ha! It’s a roller coaster folks but once you ride the roller coaster a few times it’s predictable right? The initial excitement fades away. This means two things to me… YOU GET THE HANG OF IT and learn that it’s not all that bad. OR YOU GET BORED and are ready to MOVE ON …. FORWARD I HOPE. Either way, it takes time to discipline yourself.

It takes time to get consistent. Don’t let little shortcomings get you down. I can’t stress how important it is for everyone to take steps towards a healthier life. EATING CLEAN is the best thing you could do for yourself. Getting past the first 2 weeks of withdrawls will be anywhere from hellish to oh that wasn’t too bad. Making time to do the prep work for meals is WORK. Quit being LAZY! YES it’s that freakin simple! QUIT BEING LAZY! 80% of all you do in effort to be healthy is about NUTRITION. Yes you should move and be active but if that’s what is holding you back then just look at the math. EIGHTY PERCENT of it comes from what you put in your mouth folks. It’s simple.

I’m sure many of the peoples out there are tired of me checking in on Facebook…. oh look she’s at that CrossFit Boom place again. Oh there she is blogging about her workout. WTH did she cook this time. In the same turn I’M SICK OF READING ABOUT PEOPLE’s migraines, head colds, coughs, flu symptoms, sick kids, etc. I know it happens. I know there are people out there with conditions that are beyond their control and I’m not addressing those folks. I’m not saying my kids don’t get a bug every now and then but I can guarantee you that my family and I are not brought down week in and week out with sickness and I would bet a butt ton of money it’s because we are ACTIVE and we EAT pretty CLEAN! We don’t live off of boxed and bagged processed junk. I say junk becuase it’s not food, it’s JUNK. Again we aren’t perfect but it’s not even that I’m tired of reading about people complaining. I’m tired that people don’t do anything about it. They just layer on the feel good meds till whatever sickness passes. Those feel good meds are doing a number of BAD things to your insides. Over time your insides can’t handle it and then you have bigger issues to deal with. Pair that with poor nutrition and your body doesn’t heal. WOW, I get so fired up I just get lost in my thoughts. Take care of YOU! Please! It’s all you have.


Today’s WOD
Even though it was a little warmer this morning it felt more COLD than yesterday! I was not happy but it’s hard to be happy at 5am. I was a little excited for the workout though. LOTS OF CLEANS. I love me some Power Cleans!

Skill/Strength: 3,3,3,3,3 Power Cleans
Well I feel I am best at Power Cleans when it comes to the BAR. So it’s a good morning. The goal in the sets of 3 is to have a HEAVY goal for the last set. So we need to start out heavy too. For me that’s starting around 85lbs with a goal of 105lbs. I’m pretty sure my PR is 100 and it was ugly but don’t quote me on that. Just trying to set a good goal. I managed really well at 85, 90 and 95lbs. I get to my 4th set of 100 and I get it up but it’s a miss for the 2nd rep. NO biggie, I have one more attempt. After a little extra rest I attack the bar get it up, go for the 2nd rep and it’s a NO GO :/ Ah well. At least I got it up twice! Maybe next time. Who would of thunk it… I can clean 100lbs without dying! I was feeling pretty AWESOME at this point. One day 100lbs will be a joke and I’ll be pushing for much grander numbers, but for now I’m happy with where I am at. I need to build that confidence of dropping under the bar!

10/30/12 WOD

MetCon: 4 rounds of 400m run, 12 Power Cleans (85lbs), 2 minute rest
More Power Cleans, and I’m still in a happy place. Internally I was torn between doing 85lbs or dropping the weight because 12 reps  x 4 is A LOT …. in my head, but externally I just stuck with the weight and was going to do it come hell or highwater. You should all know I suck at running by now. I hate it with a great passion. Running is not for me but it’s part of the MetCon so I do it. It took me 2 minutes to run the 400. So far I’ve been pretty consistent. Get back to the bar and it seems to take forever for me to get focused. The cold makes my nose run, I’m a mess. My first round of 12 was sloppy and ugly. Coach broke it down for me in my 2 minute rest, thank goodness for rest and I just played the movement in my head for the rest of my 2 minutes. Off to run again. I felt I ran a little better this time around but I can’t recall my time. I got back and focused on dropping under the bar and having the bar land on my shoulders and I did do much better. I was really trying to do the Cleans UNBROKEN but I failed at 7 reps and had to pick it back up. The 2 minute rest was really beneficial because I don’t think I would make it running. My 3rd run felt even a little better than the 2nd run. It was amazing, but I don’t think I was any faster! For my 3rd set of Cleans I got to 8 or 9 reps then dropped the bar. I just couldn’t hold on to it. My 4th run was SLLLOWWWW. I took off at 16:05 and returned at 18:43 or something like that. I knew I had to make up for it on the Cleans and low and behold I did them UNBROKEN. Time: 19:31. If I could only run better!!!!

Food NOTE: I baked a pumpkin last night. Didn’t have time or energy to puree it, but hopefully I’ll get creative tonight. Stay Tuned!
Have an AWESOME day. I sure am gonna try! Here’s a little video of what’s been living in my house, NOW FINALLY getting removed. Bee AWESOME!

BOOM BOOM BOOMIN’

Where to start, where to start! It was a long day on Saturday full of football, chilly weather and then BARBELLS FOR BOOBS! I was running way late due to football running long. As Ernie would say “She’ll be late to her own funeral!” But I was booking it the best I could!

It was a great turnout for the B4B event! Everyone was killing it and having a blast. My oldest kiddo Jonas had already done Grace by the time I got there but he finished in 3:06 doing 85lbs! So proud of him and how far he’s come strength wise. And so JEALOUS! All the ladies had already gone by the time I was warmed up except for Mel. I knew Mel would kill it as she is SUPERWOMAN. I was just hoping to finish! I did the RX weight of 85lbs and knocked out 10 so fast, I was excited and then I hit a wall. A wall of suck! Time 6:06 (I think, something close) Two things plagued me – 1. not pacing myself better and 2. Not eating pretty much all day. I had 2 sausage rolls, and a bag of Cheddar Sour Cream chips with Nacho cheese sauce on them… besides being super unhealthy and gross sounding, they ended up being really tasty and definitely a FIRST for me as far as eating cheesed up chips out of the bag. I must have looked so sad and pathetic. Thank you all again who donated to Barbells For Boobs! Our team earned a little over $700 which is great! You can still donate if you wish, right here!

After B4B we chowed down on some protein and veggies. And boy oh boy was it good! I had marinated some fajita meat and some chicken breasts and thanks to our GrillMaster Josh, everything came out great. The chicken was the big hit so for those of you who tasted it and wanted to know what I used to season it here it is:
Please note, I have a heavy hand with spices and I don’t measure! I used: chili powder, himalayan salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, lemon pepper. I mixed it in a small bowl then I rubbed it onto chicken thoroughly. I really put some love into that chicken, haha. I then put some olive oil, red wine vinegar and chicken broth in a gallon zip lock bag. If I were to guess, I’d say it was about 2tbs or less of olive oil, a few shakes of the vinegar and maybe a 1/4 cup of chicken broth. Plopped the chicken in bag, sealed it up and gave it a good shake. Left in fridge till it was time to go. It probably marinated a good 8 hours. It was cooked perfectly and tasted FANTASTIC!

#OccupyBoom
After we stuffed our faces a few of us were still hanging around so we challenged each other to on the spot WODs. Sherry and I were teammates and not sure how we would fare against all the BOYS! Of course Jonas was ready to challenge his mama and that he did. We had a list of movements on the whiteboard. His team picked two Movements, Coach came up with the workout and then we negotiated from there. Well we had Deadlifts and Cleans. The weight was 75lbs for us ladies and 115lbs for the guys. It was going to be a 7 minute AMRAP of 10 DLs and 5 Cleans. There were 3 people on Jonas’ team and only two of us which I was thinking was UNFAIR, HAHAH! So with the help of Travis we threw out a 50 Double Under buy in. They accepted and 3-2-1 GO. I did DUs faster than I have ever done them before. I knew I had to because with us only having 2 people vs their 3 I knew we’d have to get in a lead. We managed 10 rounds 4 reps and led by 1 round the whole time until the END, they somehow caught us and beat us by 5 reps 😦 womp womp! It was fine though, I was still beat from GRACE and then we just did more cleans and a bunch of DLs. After that we watched the boys challenge each other. It was a good time. I hope we do more nights like that!

Today’s WOD
Holy Shitakes it was COLD this morning. Probably not cold for you folks in the North but cold for me! 36°, brrrrr. A good wake up call is taking a 400m run and breathing in all that cold air! But after eating BREADS on Sunday all the cold air in the world wasn’t going to clear my brain.

Skill/Strength: 3 x 3 Back Squat at 90% of 1 RM. Now if I did my math right, and by that I mean use my 1RM for Back Squat, I should have worked up to 130lbs and started my sets there. But with my BAGEL brain, I calculated off my 1RM DEADLIFT!

Who does that? This girl does! So I’m STILL WARMING up and was thinking 125lbs was a lil heavy but suck it up. Moved up to 135lbs, A LIL HEAVIER and then jumped to 155lbs and managed 1 REP. I’m thinking I still have to get up to at least 165lbs and that is NOT gonna happen. Well DODO brain me realizes at the same time Coach is looking at our MAX whiteboard that I’m doing the wrong weights and I just PR’d my BACK SQUAT! WOWOW DON’T EAT BREAD/JUNK, IT F**** YOUR BRAIN UP! I did however put in some extra work into those Back Squats!

MetCon: 12 minute AMRAP of 5 Chest to Bar Pull Ups, 10 Clapping Push Ups and 15 Jumping Air Squats. Well shitfire, are you kidding me? I got some bands on the bar for my Pull Ups and attempted some Clapping Push Ups and figured I just had to go the best I could. My first round of banded CTB Pull Ups weren’t too bad and the first round of Push Ups were awkward but I made it through, Kudos to all of you that can do them, THEY SUCK! Jumping Air Squats were fine at first but I was so winded by the end everything just hurt. By my third round of CTB Pull Ups I was struggling so Coach modified me to 8 Pull Ups vs. 5 CTB ones. That helped a little but not much. I was also given the option to not have to CLAP on the push ups but I didn’t take that option so I kept on with the Clapping Push Ups. Final: 4 rounds + 8 Pull Ups + 10 Clapping Push Ups. I WAS BEAT!

Needless to say I’m sore, tired, cold, and in a brain fog. I hope you all are faring much better than I. Looking forward to a healthier WEEK and just getting back to AWESOME. Have an amazing Monday folks!

Better Than Yesterday

Progress no matter how slow or how minute is PROGRESS. Don’t forget that and don’t let up if you stray off course. If anyone has been the prime example of stumbling off the path it’s been me lately! So hone in on your goal the best you can. Choose your battles wisely and don’t let others influence your situation.

And know you can’t out train a bad diet! Believe me I try! What you put in your body is FUEL and if the fuel is JUNK then you’re not going to perform well. Maybe you say that’s not important to you but IT IS! You have to maintenance your vehicle regularly to keep it in tip top shape. If you’re putting in crap fuel, crap oil then your bound to have problems a lot sooner than if you use quality materials. Your BODY is so much more important than your vehicle! It carries you around FOR LIFE! And the maintenance fees are way more expensive the older you get. So if yesterday wasn’t pretty try and be better today!

BOOM Box Fun
Just recently Coach added a “pre warm-up” warm up to our mornings which is fine except that I roll in right at 5am. I finally got out of the door with enough time to do this pre warm up and feel so much better about myself. I felt pretty slackerish on Tuesday so I HAD to get out of bed just a little bit earlier. Just one more thing to add to my day but it’s worth it and if I want to get better then I know that’s what I have to do. Just tell my bed to let me go in the mornings, PLEASE! Heheh, it’s hard to get up so early all of the time. But it’s my only choice so that’s what I do.

10/25/12 WOD

Skill/Strength: Clean & Jerk work
After all our warming up, it was time to get some PVC time and practice our Clean & Jerk skills. Using the PVC bar is always so awkward but at the same time so helpful. It is so light weight and everything we do is over exaggerated. But going through those movements really helps translate to the bar. I never thought I would even use PVC to help me out in weightlifting. Hell I never thought I would say I’m doing WEIGHTLIFTING! But here I am and I’m loving it! I highly suggest picking up a barbell and lifting heavy shit.

MetCon: 10-1 of Burpees and Jumping Air Squats, Buy Out 30 KB Swings (1POOD)
That means you do 10 Burpees, 10 Jumping Air Squats, 9 Burpees, 9 Air Squats, 8 Burpees, and so forth. Doesn’t sound like a lot of work but I know it is and I promise you it is. I was torn on what I thought my time would be. Burpees take a lot out of me as much as I try to be efficient I end up sucking wind pretty bad. I do believe it was the Jumping Air Squats that did me in today. I say this because I don’t think I’ve ever done Jumping Air Squats in a CrossFit environment. Strange I know but I really can’t remember. Prior to CrossFit a squat was maybe getting to a 90° angle, knees and hips level. And when you got tired it was a half ass attempt. Well in CrossFit an Air Squat is breaking parallel.

You learn to get low. So going low and then JUMPING up from that is a butt whoopin! My hips were spent! At one point I wasn’t sure my legs were there to hold me up, fortunately they were! I almost forgot I had to do KB swings. I knocked out 15 and was ready to stop but I knew I had to do these unbroken. I really didn’t want to. I wanted to PUKE. But I wasn’t going to let that happen either. So I finished and laid down, rolled around on the floor a bit like a dying creature as well. Not pretty but I finished STRONG. Time: 7:17. Definitely feels good till I see the whiteboard later then I’ll regret every pause I took during the Air Squats :/ Hehehe. I know I’m hard on myself. It’s how I function.

Barbells For Boobs and #OccupyBoom
Two more days until our CrossFit Boom event for Barbells For Boobs! I know October is the “it” month for Breast Cancer Awareness but always remember that Cancer is around every month no matter where it hits and it hits all ages, races, genders, etc. If you are able to support me and my fundraising efforts I sure would appreciate it! I’m halfway to my goal of $100. I figure if I can get 25 people to donate $2, then I reach my goal! That’s less than your Starbucks coffee! That’s if you get Starbucks coffee. Or less than your Egg McMuffin this morning, ahahha. I hope you weren’t scarfing down one of those but it’s only $2. I welcome $1 from 50 people if that needs to be the case. B4B is a great cause and all donations go straight to them and in turn go straight to Mammograms in Action. You will be helping out uninsured and/or low income folks to get the screenings they need. Save a Pair, Save a Life. Donate HERE.

So at CrossFit Boom we are hosting the workout GRACE (30 Clean & Jerks for time). This is for fun and to raise awareness. If you’re not sure about CrossFit or want to know more, come on out and watch us. If you want to jump in and participate then you can participate. Everything can be scaled to your abilities. I’ve watched kids as young as 9 and people well into their 70s. It’s COMMUNITY coming together to throw around some weight and raise money for people in need! Oct 27th, 6pm, CrossFit Boom!

#OccupyBoom
After B4B we will be grillin some meats, so BYOB, bring your own BEEF, hehe, or chicken, or pork or whatever and we’ll have some folks cookin it up! After we fuel up we’ll have some friendly team competitions. Nothing INSANE I don’t think but I know there will lots of FUN! Come play with us!

It’s supposed to be a beautiful day in North Texas until the cold front comes in that is! So enjoy it cause tomorrow is supposed to be icky! And BE AWESOME while you are at it!

Competing Everyday

That’s been on my brain as of late, mostly because a couple of months ago I received a COMPETE EVERYDAY wristband that I stare at everyday and just recently I was gifted a nifty COMPETE EVERYDAY shirt. “Compete Everday, BECAUSE I HAVEN’T REACHED MY LIMITS”. It’s perfect.

I’m sure the word “compete” is a turn off to a lot of people. It sounds like work. It sounds hard. Why do I want to compete everyday? Competing everyday doesn’t have to be tedious, it should be fun, it should be YOU vs. YOU, not you vs. that magazine ad, or the scale or you vs. anything but YOU! I look at my wristband and although I don’t always hit the mark in making myself better in my eyes, I do really have to reflect and tell myself that YES you are making yourself better. Yes you push your limits.

Some days my limits are set lower but some days they are set high and I push them. I have to remind myself that I get up 4 out of 7 mornings before the sun comes up to go kill a workout and stay busy the other 3 days. I strive for clean eating. I strive to be a good parent. I strive to better at life always. And I do. And I also tend to get lost in it all and whine and complain and whatever else but at the end of the day I do COMPETE. And certain days it’s truly an aggressive action but it’s not always aggressive; it is however wanting more, it’s wanting to be better for me, which in turn helps me to better for a lot of other people. It feels good, self-empowerment. I hear a lot of people say, “oh I’m not competitive” or “i’m passive, i don’t compete” But I’m not talking about team sports. I’m talking about life. Most people have desires and wants, and unless you come from the land of the rich, most things don’t just fall in your lap. It takes work. It’s takes want to. It takes competition. Sure I like to compete in general, it’s how I’m wired but I know not everyone is wired that way. I compete always, in my head! And sure I know how to relax and enjoy the simple things in life. It’s called balance. Find your balance but also find your drive. Find COMPETITION.

The BOOM Box was full of my weaknesses this morning and I was really having a hard time finding my want to. It’s true and that’s what inspired my ramblings. I showed up to work but was I there to PUSH? I was but I didn’t want to at the time.

Skill/Strength: 3 x 10 Ring Pullups. MODIFIED to Ring Rows. The movement is not HARD for me but I don’t have a lot of reps in a row. By the 3rd set I had to bend my knees to get solid reps in. My problem this morning was “hanging” for too long. Instead of just fighting through, I’d hang and lose power. And in that 3rd set I forced myself to push through all 10 reps. Granted they were even more modified but I think I won that battle by not stopping.

10/23/12 WOD

MetCon: 30 Pull Ups, 20 Wall Balls (14lbs), 10 Shoulder to Overhead (85lbs), 20 Wall Balls, 30 Pull Ups. All upper body. All weaknesses in my book! So coach didn’t want us using bands today for Pull Ups so MORE Ring Rows it is… at least I had a warm up session! Before we started we warmed up our STOH with Push Presses, Push Jerks and Split Jerks. The RX weight was 105 but that’s really pushing past limits and I wanted to finish the WOD! So I worked up to 85lbs which isn’t light for me but I cleaned the bar fine and felt I could at least do 10 reps right? Even after Pull Ups and Wall Balls! LOL, Yes I was convincing myself it’s doable.

I knocked out 10 Ring Rows, then 5, then 6 and then I don’t know what till I got to 30. I suck at Wall Balls and really dragged ass on those. Got to the STOH and pushed out 5 but lost momentum and dropped the bar. I sure as hell didn’t want to Clean it again but I did and decided I would SPLIT JERK the remaining 5 reps. Well I was doing great and did my 5th rep, dropped the bar and moved to Wall Balls. Coach NO REPPED me!!! ARGH. I didn’t step together and show I had control on the last rep! It was a mindless act, I didn’t do it on purpose :/ But I had to Clean the bar again and do that last REP! ARGH! NOW onto Wall Balls, I threw that damn ball up there, hit the mark but was unable to catch it on the way down. I was done! I struggled through the 19 reps left! Hahah, I ended up knocking them out in sets of 5 but it was a sad sight. 30 Ring Rows left and I could only bust out a handful at a time. Time: 11:14. Those damn WALL BALLS, I let them get in my head and take up too much time. One day I will own Wall Balls!

Food Front
In regards to FOODs, back to Paleo and Clean Eating for sure, but not entirely back on Sugar Detox. In truth most foods I have been eating are without sugar. It’s only been 2 days but I’m already feeling that much better. I know it’s a mental state as well but my body is definitely loving me more! Nothing exciting. But everything is tasting so much better!

Barbells For Boobs/#Occupy Boom
This Saturday Oct 27th @ 6pm! The workout is GRACE (30 Clean & Jerks for time). If you been keeping up with me, then you know you’re invited. I want you to come out and experience all of this FUN I write about day in and day out. If you would like to be a part of this event please visit the link on the right and donate at least $30 to mammograms in action. Even if you don’t want to participate, donations are welcome to support my efforts in raising money for Barbells For Boobs ツ! I’m still at $40 of my $100 goal. IF you can help, click here. Any amount is welcome. Thank you for your support.

Barbells for Boobs is a non-profit breast cancer organization whose mission is to provide funding through the Mammograms in Action @ Grant Program for qualified low income and uninsured women and men who need screening and/or diagnostic procedures in the prevention of breast cancer.

#OccupyBoom will follow B4B. Not sure what’s in store but I know it will be team workouts and loads of fun. Come see us be crazy!

Have a beautiful day peeps. Remember to be AWESOME. Today I challenge you to Paint something. I say this only because we got to paint pumpkins last night for the kids and it truly is fun. I suck at painting and in the end we did a lot of gluing but it’s a good time anyways. So go be creative and have some fun.