Muscle Ups

Mornings or Evenings

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As you all know I’m trying to get back to my consistent workouts and slowly but surely I am getting there. (Too bad my blogging is still struggling, but I’m working on that too!) The biggest thing I’ve struggled with though is getting back to the EARLY MORNING workouts. I used to be so good. Getting up and getting to the box at 5 am was a no brainer. Just get up and go. Then I got lazy and chunky and sleep just sounded so much better.

Then there’s the evenings… those are oh so nice. My brain and body are awake. I’m way more limber and it’s not as hard to get moving and warmed up. My performance may not be better but I feel better! It does, however suck up my whole evening. And well that’s no fun.

But I did finally show up at 5 am today and boy oh boy I feel GRAND! I have energy. I’m ready to go and tackle the day. And in truth, I know I’m more of a morning person. But as with anything, you fall out of routine and it’s hard to get back. Yes this morning, I was achy and groggy. But by the time I was done and showered up, I was all woooooo!

I’ve been a slacker at the blogging so here are some quick recaps from the week!

4/18/14
Skill: Kipping HSPU Progression
We did a lot of stuff I couldn’t do, so this was mainly a sideline event for me.

4/18/14 WOD

4/18/14 WOD

MetCon: 400 Total Reps AFAP – 1 minute at each station of Burpess, Step Ups, Jumping Air Squats and Walking Lunges.
You just keep rotation until you get your 400 reps in. Or die. Thankfully no one died but I sure did feel like it at various times. There’s not much to say except my hips were smoked. This was not a FUN workout :/ Time: 21:15

4/22/14
Skill: Muscle Ups
Ya, still not good at this.

4/21/14 WOD

4/21/14 WOD

MetCon: 10 rounds of 6 Cleans and 3 Front Squats, every 90 seconds do 3 HSPU or 1 Wall Walk.
Boy do I love me some Cleans. And the wrist is getting better everyday so I was excited for this workout all except for the HSPU or Wall Walk part. My wrist can’t handle Wall Walks just yet so Coach had me do 6 ring dips (band assisted). So I was back to happy place. That was until about round 4. I was over Cleans, my wrist was getting fatigued and I thought crap I still have 6 more rounds. There’s no way. But I hung in there and just chipped away. Time: 13:12

4/23/14
Game: Wall Ball Bowling
Well this was different. There were plates ranging from 15lbs to 45lbs set up like pins but flat and a medball. We split up into teams and got to roll medball for two frames. Whatever plate our ball landed on determined what movement the other team had to do. So if you landed on 25, it was 25 Push Ups for the other team. 15 = Wall Balls, 25 = Push Ups, 35 = KB Swings and 45 = Sit Ups. Thankfully our opponents weren’t very good so we only had 1 round of Sit Ups and and 1 round of Push Ups! It was fun though.

4/23/14 WOD

4/23/14 WOD

MetCon: 3 Turns of 2 rounds of 10 Dumbbell Snatches and 250ft Sprint.
We were supposed to get timed but that didn’t happen so we just did 3 rounds of hell AFAP. Except my fast as possible sprint included a slow trot by the end. We had 40lb dumbbells and had to alternate 10 reps. I actually got better as the rounds went on when I wasn’t dying from the “trot”. But 40lbs is still heavy for me. This workout was pretty much evil. But still a good one.

4/25/14
Woooo I finally made a 5am class.

Skill: Snatch
It’s been a while and my whole body hurts from the week so I wasn’t sure how I’d do, but besides a few rusty warm ups, I got back into this movement pretty ok. Not perfect or anything, but good enough.

4/25/14 WOD

4/25/14 WOD

MetCon: “Isabel” 30 Snatches for time
Coach didn’t want us to go so heavy we lost form and even though I’ve hit 85lbs just a handful of times, I wasn’t prepared for 85lbs or even 75lbs. So I went with 65lbs. That ended up not being too bad. Coach didn’t want us going light and finishing under 3 minutes, but he didn’t really want us going over 6 minutes either. I busted out two sets of 5, then sets of 2 then singles. Time: 4:14

That’s a Wrap!
So like I said it was slow rolling. A grumbly stomach prevented from hitting the box up on Monday and an unexpected ER visit for one of my kiddos prevented me from going on Thursday. But all is well and I’m still eating tons better than I had been last month. So yay for small steps! It’s possible for all of you on the bubble. You can do it! There’s not one day that’s better than any other day to getting back on track. You just gotta do it! So whatever that is… eating clean, getting active or anything to a healthier life, you got this! Have a great weekend!

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Just One Day . . .

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Makes a huge difference. ONE DAY OF CLEANER EATING, it’s almost unbelievable. I wasn’t even perfect, just a whole lot better!

I can’t promise everyone will feel this way. And I’m sure in 2 or 3 days, I’ll feel like crap going through food withdrawls. But I was high energy all day. And even though I sucked at my workout, I didn’t think or feel like I might die. Annnndddd, I woke up this morning before my alarm clock, wide eyed and bushy tailed. I finally made it to a morning workout! Which is key for me and our busy, crazy schedule!

4/14/14 WOD

Midline: 50 Hollow Rocks and 50 Russian KB Swings – choose a weight and go for unbroken
Coach said we should do the Hollow Rocks Unbroken. I laugh at him. Maybe 20, then 10, then 5’s. As far as the KB swings, I didn’t go heavy cause last time I tried I didn’t go UB. So I opted for a lighter weight and barely made it. I was smoked. Can I go home now?

Strength: Front Squat 5×3 @ 75%
Finally, I can front rack the bar without any pain in my wrist. It’s so nice. But today I had my back plaguing me. I was warming up and 30lbs away from my 75% weight when my back was not feeling it. Coach had me mobilize, which helped some but when I retested the weight the pain was still on my right lower back. More mobilizing for me. Sadly I didn’t get to put in the reps.

4/14/14 WOD

4/14/14 WOD

MetCon: 5 rounds of 12 Cleans and 6 Presses 115/75
Warming up I felt ok, but my back was still a little off. To be safe, I went with Hang Cleans at 65lbs. This alleviated the stress on my back which is good. I don’t need an injured back. After 1 round of the Presses, my wrist decided it wasn’t happy. I did 6 Hang Cleans in round 2 but was worried I wasn’t going to be able to finish. I was just going to take a DNF. I don’t know how long it took me before I decided to ask Coach what I could do as a substitution but it was at least 3-4 minutes of me standing around. Maybe more! He had me use the AirDyne instead of Presses and go until I hit 12 calories. By then my wrist was feeling ok enough to do Hang Cleans, but I was glad to not be going overhead. Once I had it in my head that I just needed to not worry about the clock anymore and just do work, I did fine. The AirDyne though is EVIL. Very EVIL! Time: 12:07

4/15/14 WOD
Oh yaaa, I got up early and went to the 6am class as a trial. The 5 am class is a better suited time frame because I gotta get kids to school and myself to work. But Tu/Thurs that isn’t an option. If I go into hyper mode when I get home it appears I can make it on time. But there is ZERO time to stick around if the MetCon runs late.

Skill: Muscle Ups or Double Unders
We kind of worked both, but if you have or are closer to a Muscle Up then they worked more on the MUs while those of us who don’t worked on DUs.

Gymnastics WOD: EMOM 5 min – 2 MU or 5 min max DU
Ya, I think I used up all my DUs in the skill session. And I kept tripping up which then led me to stand around and not do anything. I managed 183 reps in 5 minutes. I don’t think that’s very good but it is what it is.

4/15/14 WOD

4/15/14 WOD

MetCon: 12 min AMRAP of 40 DU and 20 HR Push-ups
So if my DU’s were gone in the skill session, they were definitely gone after 5 minutes of doing nothing but DUs. I at least thought I could do the first round Unbroken. But I only got about 20. I don’t think I strung more than 25 together ever in the 12 minutes. My shoulders were smoked. I couldn’t relax. Then Hand Release Push Ups were of no help. Just smokin’ the shoulders more! The whole 12 minutes was a mental struggle. My shoulders are dead. And so are my calves.  Final: 4 rounds + 36 DUs RX

That’s a wrap!
Yes I had a poor poor petri post yesterday, but I’ve been gone from the blogsphere and I had to recap. Ya dig? And now I’m ready for my 798797th time to get back on the proverbial horse. Better than staying at the bottom I suppose. Just hoping to find my happy place this time around. Winning the lottery and becoming a stay at home mom would really help!

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And yes let me say ONE MORE TIME, that I’m barely in day 2 of just eating better, more balanced, etc and I feel AWESOME. Not PERFECT but way better than any day last week, or the week before, or the MONTH before. Seriously folks. Just slight changes. Cutting out sugar. OR lessening sugar if you must. Eliminating or lessening grains. Eliminating or lessening processed foods. Adding veggies and protein with some heatlthy fat. Drinking MORE AGUA, aka WATER! And I get it, I feel you when you think NO way, not gonna do it. I keep going back to that place too. And I feel like crap and I get headaches and I lose the will to leave the couch. And to be honest it’s dumb to feel that way everyday and be okay with it. It’s just dumb. Yes I realize I’m calling myself dumb and it’s the truth. Especially when I can feel good physically and mentally just by cutting out junk. It’s easier than you think or make it out to be, I promise. I can guarantee you, that I don’t have extra special will power. Or that I’m better than any one of you out there. You just have to decide enough is enough. Make Tuesday your day of change!

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Tiger Blood…not just yet

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It’s Day SIXTEEN of Whole30! Yayaya. Made it through the halfway point and holding strong. By now I should be feeling like I have the blood of tigers. That’s what they say on the Whole30 timeline. While I’m not ready to take on the world I sure as heck feels tons better. So it’s coming along. This past weekend though seemed to be the hardest on me as far as wanting to stick with it. I was ready to throw in the towel and just go out to eat. Have some tasty food and beverages.

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But I just sucked it up and stuck with my compliant foods. Saturday, however, was probably too much snacking for me. Boredom struck. And I found myself eating too much trail mix and too much fruit. I didn’t really feel any ramifications from it, but I KNEW I should have held back and think things through better.

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I’ve been really bad at taking pics of my food. I have a couple here but nothing too exciting! As far as following Weeknight Paleo, I opted out for week 3. There was some tasty dishes but they included honey. And I just can’t imagine the recipes tasting the same if I eliminated some key ingredients. I wasn’t prepared ahead enough for other weeks either. So I just bought enough staples that I know I will eat for this week.

1/17/14 Lunch

1/17/14 Lunch

1/20/14 Lunch

1/20/14 Lunch

Boom Box 1/17/14
Skill: Bar Muscle Ups
I was able to work on some of the progressions but I could only do so much. The wrist still needs work. A lot of the pain is gone, now it’s mobility and getting back on track. I still can’t hold my body weight, but I’m getting closer.

1/17/14 WOD

1/17/14 WOD

MetCon: 12 min AMRAP of 15 Wall Balls, 3 Bar MU, 6 T2B
Ya, so I showed up for the 5pm class and whaddya know. Badasses show up. I’m the only on there who can’t do MUs or T2B. It’s depressing and motivating all at the same time. I was able to drop the ball for Wall Balls since catching the ball puts a lot of strain on the wrist. Still wishing I could carry on this modification, but I know I will have to go back to catching that darn ball. I did banded pull ups instead of Bar MUs. I was, however, stringing more reps together. Yay! And for the T2B, my hands didn’t hurt nearly as much for my Knees to Elbows. I can only attribute Whole30 and eating clean. Because a couple of weeks ago, I was way more of a baby. Final: 3 rounds + 5 Wall Balls.

1/20/14
Midline: 50 Hollow Rocks and 50 Superman Rocks
We ended up doing these at the end of class and I’m so much better at Superman Rocks than Hollow Rocks. Why is that?

Strength: OH squats 2-2-2-2 Tempo 10/4/x/1
O M GEEEE. This tempo negative stuff is killing me. Last week it was Front Squats, now it’s Overhead Squats! Doh! I was just happy that I could do them! Wooooo! Told you my wrist is getting better. I started off with 55lbs and felt good. 10 seconds to go down, hold for 4 seconds, pop up fast and repeat. I felt good, so I jumped to 65lbs… TOO MUCH TOO SOON! My weak right forearm was not prepared and fatigued fast. So I dropped to 55lbs, but I was done. So I continued with the bar. Baby steps I know. But I’m so ready to do work. And the wrist is so close to feeling better!

1/20/14 WOD

1/20/14 WOD

MetCon: 6 min Ladder of 1 Push-up HR, 1 HSPU, 2 Push-ups HR 2 HSPU …. The mod for HSPU is box step overs. get as high as possible!
Uh ya, I had higher hopes for this MetCon but I did the best I could. I totally forgot to wrap my knuckles with tape before we started. And they got beat down pretty fast. I always feel like I’m going to tear. And I’m a big baby. So it didn’t add up for fast reps. Not sure if I had been doing regular push ups that I would have done better, but it HURTED and again, total cry baby here! Final: 9 rounds + 3 Push Ups.

This weekend is a COMMUNITY WOD at 9am and Yoga at 10am and Ladies Night at 6pm! Not sure if I’ll make the morning classes or not but I will be at Ladies Night. If you are in the DFW area and want to check out CrossFit and see what our box is about, YOU ARE INVITED.

That’s a Wrap!
Just want to remind you I’m hosting a giveaway. It’s for an e-book by Paleo Parents called 3 Phase Paleo. If you’re not ready to go COLD TURKEY into Paleo living then this is the book for you. Even if you’re already Paleo, there are still 75 recipes, along with nifty tips and links to keep you on the right track.

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READ MY REVIEW of 3 Phase Paleo and ENTER GIVEAWAY!

This e-book provides helpful strategy to transition you and your family over to the Paleo lifestyle. Here is the post. At the bottom of the post you will find directions to enter the giveaway. Go enter now for a chance to win a copy. If you’re ready to just buy buy buy, then Click HERE. Or find the link in my menu on the right hand side.

Other than that, let’s get through this week STRONG! Are you staying hydrated? Eating enough Veggies? How about that Healthy FAT? Let’s do this folks. Chime in on how you are doing so far. February will be here before we know it!

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Rest (too much), Eat (too much), Suck (a lot)

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It’s meeeee and I’m not happy to say I’m Baaacckkk. So I was on the down-low for the past three days resting up a SELF DIAGNOSED strained groin muscle. From what the interwebs told me it was my ADDUCTOR muscles and ya not sure which one specifically but it hurt like a MOFO! I briefly mentioned it on my Monday post and low and behold Tuesday it kind of sucked to walk. By Wednesday it was still tender and still hurt but getting better. By Thursday it was just a lil painful to touch but nothing crazy. This morning it seemed fine until we did this wall stretch – where you lay on the ground, scoot your butt up against a wall and place your feet in a squat position on the wall. Let the tightness begin. Boy that hurt.

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13.3 CrossFit Games Open

 

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13.3 has come and it’s a repeat workout from last year. The dreaded 12.4: 12 minute AMRAP of 150 Wall Balls, 90 Double Unders and 30 Muscle Ups. I really just want to say I SUCKED. I QUIT. I QUIT CROSSFIT. THE END. But you all should by now I’m not a quitter. I just excel at the suckfest.

Let me put this in perspective. IF YOU ARE A SUPER ELITE ATLHETE, you will get into a 2nd round. Even if you are a SUPER ELITE ATHLETE  you may not get through one round. So here I am very NOT SO ELITE, just trying to survive!

As you the people should know I don’t do well at the Wall Balls. They are miserable evil things. And mentally I came into the box in a bad shape. It doesn’t help that I’ve had 3 days off and have stuffed my face repeatedly. The upside to having 3 days off is that my shoulders weren’t dead and my hips weren’t dead. The downside to having 3 days off and eating poorly is that I have no will/want to/drive, etc. To be honest I wasn’t even SMOKED at the end of the workout. I was tired and breathing heavy but nowhere near exhaustion. I was just pissed. I wasn’t getting in good sets. I wasn’t doing anything worth a damn.

3/22/13 WOD

3/22/13 WOD

To top it off I did worse than I did a month ago when it showed up on the whiteboard (133 reps). And to drive the knife in a little further I did worse than I did last year (120 reps). Total: 110 reps. YUP. BAD. OH SO BAD.

Now the question is to REDO or NOT to REDO. sigh. double sigh. It’s just for fun right? It’s not going to catapult me into some top place but for my own sanity and to prove that I really don’t suck that bad, I want a do-over. We’ll see how I feel as the day goes on.

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On the UPSIDE. 6am class KILLED it! Way to go Ladies and Gents. Mostly the ladies who are signed up for the OPEN. They all got the 150 and some even got into the Double Unders! BRAVO! Y’all are an inspiration 🙂

It’s the weekend folks. Another baseball-fun-filled weekend ahead. And maybe a do-over on 13.3. Gotta get out of this funk. Send AWESOME thoughts my way cause I need them! Have a fabulous weekend and be so AWESOME that it hurts!

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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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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!