Not so drained, but a little agitated

With the right mindset all things are possible. That is for sure. Over the past year I’ve tried getting back to it with the 21 Day Sugar Detox, Advocare, Weightloss Comp at work and whatever other promises I made to myself. But not one was fruitful. Now that I’m determined and willing, this is a walk in the park. Ok, it’s not like a lackadaisical stroll through some fairy tale wonderland but it’s definitely easier than my previous attempts at being good. Those before pics I took were really really motivating. Maybe one day I’ll share them with you. MAYBE!

Day FOUR! I’ve made it. I know it doesn’t sound like a big triumph. You might be saying “You’re only 4 days in. That’s nothing.” But seriously, 4 days of super clean eating. Proper eating. Getting in all the right portions, that’s no joke.

As for how I’m feeling, well, I was a little slow moving this morning but I’m not feeling anything negative physically at the moment. A little more on edge, irritable but in general I’m feeling fine. I thought I was getting a sore throat so I drank some water with apple cider vinegar. I’m becoming a firm believer in this stuff. And I’m not one for much of the “home remedy” type stuff. But everyday I’m becoming more and more of that person. I woke up and there is no sign of sore throat!

As far as eating is concerned, I had my Day THREE lunch of leftovers. A hot mess of the Carnitas tower sans the avocado cause I forgot it, but had leftover asparagus to go with the pork and cole slaw. Threw in some coconut flakes with blackberries and that keeps me satiated through to dinner. No cravings. No daydreams of chocolate running into my mouth.

Lunch 1/7/14

For Day THREE dinner, I had the Salmon I made on Tuesday night. I never tasted it when it was fresh because I was too busy creating my leaning tower of carnitas. Well it was fantastic! It melted in my mouth, full of flavor and oh so good. I heated up the asparagus in a little bit of avocado oil and added a little bit of the butter lemon sauce that my other recipe was cooking in and it was to die for!

My attempt at making it more presentable.

Just in case you forgot how delicious the salmon looked!

I like being in the kitchen so prepping, slicing, dicing, cooking are not chores. Except for making things matchsticks. That sucks and I do not want to do that again. I’m sure there’s a fancy thingamajig that will do it for me, but I had a knife and a cutting board. And the recipe I was following from Weeknight Paleo called for veggies and fruits to be cut into matchsticks. Little did I know I am not good at this and it’s time consuming! It’s not hours of work but more work than I’d like to do regularly. I’m definitely finding the thingamajig that will make it easier.

But doesn’t it look so pretty?!? Asian Five-Spice Chicken with Matchstix Salad, Weeknight Paleo

I only cooked ahead for tonight because we will be busy and I won’t have time to “make” anything. Reheat I can do and that’s easy. And that’s where the Matchsticks came in. It called for radishes, jicama, fuji apple, bosc pear and carrots to all be cut into matchsticks. Ay ay ay! While I was cutting that up, I was heating up a modified schezuan sauce. The recipe called for things that I could not find without sugar and honey which is not Whole30. So I just eliminated and hoped for the best! After my sauce cooled, I tossed it in with the matchstick salad. As that was all marinating, I heated up a skillet with Coconut Oil. I took chicken tenderloins and coated them in Chines Five Spice (which I’ve never used and wasn’t sure I’d like by the smell of it) and a few other spices. And off to the skillet they went. After a few minutes of cooking I added grassfed butter and lemon juice and let the tenderloins finish cooking. Plated the matchstick salad and topped with the chicken and it was fabulous. I ate half a serving of that and half a serving of my salmon. Turns out I was right about the smell of the Chinese Five Spice because it had anise, fennel and cloves, bleh. Not my favorite spices, but all together with the butter lemon sauce it turned out rather tasty. And maybe in my past experiences the flavors were too potent for my tastebuds back in the day. Ugh I’m getting old!

I GOT THIS

Even though I have felt drained, irritable and still may have not seen the worst of withdrawals, my optimism is high! I can already feel the bloating going away. I don’t know about everyone else but when I’m eating poorly, I feel like the stay puff marshmallow at all time. Today, I can sit, stand etc and not feel like I’m busting at the seams. It’s a nice feeling. And helps keep my attitude in a good direction. I’m not hungry in between meals and I’m not CRAVING in between meals. It’s the cravings that get me. Cause I can have those any old time and not even be hungry.

You can do this too!
If you’re reading and are on the fence about doing the Whole30 or any other program for that matter just know you can do it. It is possible. For me it’s 30 DAYS. I just had to put on my big girl panties and stop with all the whining. I put my game face on and I’m going to destroy this little chunky monkey that I’ve become. You may or may not have weight to lose. You may need to get rid of those migraines that are bugging you. You may have allergies. Or maybe your joints just hurt and you’re on 17389 medications. Eat clean! Get moving! Cut out all the crap. 30 days isn’t FOREVER.

So I don’t eat grains, but you should get the idea!

That’s a wrap!
It’s my REST day so BOOM Box recaps today. Back to it tomorrow and maybe trying out a Yoga class on Saturday. It’s at CrossFit Boom, so you know that’s my second home. We’ll see. In regards to food, it will be a lot of reheating over the next two days. If you have questions, need a cheerleader, or someone to vent to about making that change for better health, then I’m your girl! Have a fab Thursday!

It has begun – Whole30

Happy Monday folks. If you’ve been following along most of you know, I put off my New Year’s resolution till today. This has worked out just fine. I had plenty of time to prepare mentally and get my ducks in order food wise. So this past weekend, consisted of eating mucho food and then shopping to get my health back to goodness. I know, I could have just made any day D-Day, but today seemed logical. I’m ready to do this. And I really don’t want to be back to this OOMPA LOOMPA state again, EVER. I already thought I was past this and would never return, especially to the extreme I’m at now. Sadly I did return and now it’s time to ANNIHILATE this chunky monkey.

The day before Day ONE – PREP and COOK
I mentioned last week that I purchased Weeknight Paleo, by Amber Beam over at www.paleosavvy.com. The decision to buy this cookbook was spurred by the fact that it had some interesting recipes that were a little bit outside my comfort zone but not completely way out there. I tend to get stuck in “food” ruts, which leads to boredom, which leads to laziness, which leads to me swimming in the abyss of junk food. The book lays out shopping lists, when to cook/prep things and how long I have to use the foods.

So off we went to Whole Foods. I told Ernie to be patient with me as I was buying specific items and not our “normal” veggie and protein stash. We had our shopping trip down to a science. A very boring science. So now I’m shopping for Jicama, specific fruits, and stuff off my normal radar. I’m also shopping for cuts of meat I’m not accustomed to asking for at the meat counter. To be safe, I still got some of our go to staples. This made my overall total bill a lot more than I’m used to but the meats are easily frozen to be used for another day.

Some of the foods already packed up and ready to go!

My first step in prepping was to get my PORK SHOULDER ROAST going. Then I was on to chopping up veggies for salads during the week. I also roasted a chicken and split it up into portions for post workout meals. Pureed some sweet potato to go with my PWO meal. Roasted sweet potato for meal 1 of the Weeknight Paleo. And I also boiled some eggs for quick breakfast when I don’t have time for much else. This took me a couple of hours but I think it’s well worth it to be prepared.

Day ONE
Well it’s only the beginning of Day ONE but my PWO meal went down easily. My breakfast on the other hand was much more of a chore. I just am not a big eater in the morning. Like I told Ernie, had I been sipping on a nice coffee drink and a sweet pastry, it would have been gone in 3 seconds. But 3 EGGS with veggies, however tasty they were was just a beating to get it down. I had to keep telling myself that I was resetting my gut, rewiring my brain, etc. Mostly rewiring my brain. I’m such a baby. But I ate it all and I survived. And I’m pretty satiated at the moment. My lunch is packed to the specifications of the Whole30 guidelines and dinner is pretty much ready to go. Just gotta heat it up. Woohooo. Day ONE should be successful… let’s just hope Day TWO and beyond reach the same success.

BOOM BOX recap
1/3/14
MetCon: (running clock) 3 minutes Elbow Plank, rest 2 min, 5 minutes max Wall Balls, rest 5 min, 5 min AMRAP of 20 Double Unders and 10 snatches 75/45. Score Wall Balls + reps from AMRAP

How’s that for a Friday workout. Doesn’t seem to daunting right? First off the Elbow Plank. Ya I suck at this. Barely made it a minute in without having to drop. Then was barely getting 15 seconds at a time after that. The rest following the plank was much needed. Because Wall Balls were about to destroy me. It’s been at least 3 or 4 months since I’ve done a Wall Ball. Doesn’t help I’ve been injured. I started slow with a 10lb ball and seemed ok, then moved to the 14lb ball. HOW IS THIS SO MUCH HEAVIER?!?!? I could get it up there but I was scared as I fatigued that catching it would put too much stress on the wrist. So Coach ALLOWED me to let it just drop and catch on the rebound! WHAT? I loved this idea! Cause I’m a bum. But that fun left pretty quickly. I only managed 50 Wall Balls in 5 minutes.

1/3/14 WOD

Then it was time for the 5 minute AMRAP of DUs and Snatches. How does 5 minutes in Wall Balls last forever and 5 minutes of this AMRAP finish in a minute. Oh my rebellious brain. Before we started I wanted to test out my Snatch. So I got the 15lb techniqe bar and threw it up and NO PAIN. So I moved to the 25lb bar and NO PAIN. I was scared moving up to the 35lb bar but I picked it up and BAM, NO PAIN. Coach had me stay at 35lbs which was fine by me. And it was so much more fine once the AMRAP started and my shoulders were DYING! I got through 3 full rounds, 20 DUs and 4 Snatches. Final: 164 reps.

1/4/13 Track WOD
Oh why oh why did I show up for this misery. Because I need to get back to it and start being a mini beast. That’s why. But it sure does suck at this moment. I also got my kids up for this crap. Good thing for them is they are good at running!

Warm up: Leg swings, 400m jog, dynamic movements
Let’s just say the 400m JOG was practically a crawl. More sucking at life.

Conditioning
A: 50 yrd sprint x 6 (walk back for rest)
Uh, ya, no fun. And I typically like sprinting. This was hurting my shins and my right hip, lower back.

B: Team WOD 400 m run, 100 yd Buddy Carry, 400m run
I was done as far as running was concerned. TOO. MUCH. PAIN! So I teamed up with my kiddos. Only one person working at a time but since I was barely hanging in there Coach let me walk one 400m while the other two ran. I barely finished the walk to keep up with them. Then it was my job to buddy carry them. So I carried one kid halfway, then swapped out for the way back. At the end of that I was DUNZO, so they ran the 400m and I cheered them on! So proud of those boys! They worked hard.

C: 50 yd Lunge, 50 yd sprint for time
And here I thought we were done after those 400’s. NOPE. I had a 50 yd lunge and then a 50 yd hobble. At least I showed up!

1/6/13
HOLY SCHMOLY, it’s cold outside. I’m talking in the teens here. We haven’t seen sub 20° in a long time! And I almost snoozed right through the 5am class!

Midline: 30 hollow rocks
Getting slightly better at this misery. But still struggling.

Strength: Front Squats @ temp 102X1 (10 sec neg, 2 sec hold, fast up, 1 sec at top) 3×5 then 20 reps AFAP (w/ doable weight)
Uh yaaa. I should have slept in! Taking 10 seconds to hit bottom is HARD. By the 3rd round, at a measley 60lbs, I finally had it figured out but I could only do 3 consecutive. My hip/lower back was dying. Like a permanent cramp. I still did the work, but I was not liking it at all. Then it came time to do 20 reps As Fast As Possible. I did 12. Then racked it. Hip/lower back was on fire. Plus, I’m Frankensteining it and that sucks even more. Finished my 8 reps then laid on a foam roller for a long time.

1/6/14 WOD

MetCon: 3 Rounds For time of 20 Sit Ups, 10 Push Ups, 10 T2B, 5 HSPU
Today was all about the core. I probably won’t be able to roll out of bed tomorrow. Sit Ups and Push Ups, I got. T2B and HSPU, not so much. So it was Knees to Elbows and Overhead presses with the Multi-Grip Bar which I was kind of excited about. I need to work on that overhead strength. I felt I did well with everything but KTE. So frustrating. Hanging onto the bar hurts SO bad! Time: 8:26

That’s A Wrap!
I worked out 6 days! Wooooo! It’s been a while since that has happened. With school and baseball picking back up I fear that it won’t be a common occurrence but I’m shooting for 5 days. I’m all prepped for the week to SUCCEED at the Whole30. And I sadly took “before” pics of myself. It’s funny how one (me) can live in denial about where one is at until one sees pictures of oneself. That’s a slap in the face. Big time. Bleh. I’m definintely determined for those “before” pictures to NEVER BE AGAIN! I’m up MANY pounds over where I’d ideally like to be. And when I say many, I’m mean 40-50lbs over. That’s the icing on the cake for me. So no more icing and no more cake. Gotta shed this weight and get back to the leaner version of me.

I hope you all have a fabulous day and if you’re rebooting, starting something new or making a change today then BE STRONG! BE A ROCKSTAR! I’m here to cheer you on and send you virtual high fives! Whole30 on!

My tshirt that I ordered from Savage Life Apparel! So cute!

Rope Climbs Scare Me

Before I started writing this I thought I’d find some witty way leading into my scaredy cat fear. But there’s not a really good way for me to do that except to just say I have some unnatural fear of climbing a rope. It’s ridiculous when I think about it, yet I have no answer for myself or anyone else when it comes to actually doing it. It’s the same fear when trying to jump on a 30″ box. I get all ready to go. I’m determined, but once I take that step, I stop. Only thing with the rope climb is that my hands don’t want to let go of the rope. At all.

We worked on rope climbs the other day and I had some crazy death grip on the rope. My hands were sore for days! And I never got more than like 3 feet off the ground. So it’s not like I was going to plummet to my death. I know this. Today, we worked again on said rope climbs and the rope I was using didn’t have a lot of slack on it. I had to climb onto a box so when I grabbed the rope I had slack. Mind you I’m only standing on a 24″ box. Not scary. But scary when I reach for the rope. HOLY GEESH my insides freeze up.

Of course I googled “fear of rope climbs” and “scared of rope climbs” and I get nothing. I’m the only person in the world that is scared. Confidence level -10.

Coach is patient with me, THANK GOODNESS, but I’m sure he thinks I’m a loonball. Believe me, I feel silly about the whole situation too. I shouldn’t be scared. But in the end I’m a girl baby who freezes up! The one thing Coach helped me with that I will have to practice (in all my free time) is to start up higher and practice coming down. It took me a few moments of telling myself I can jump onto this rope off of this now 30″ box. I’ll be ok. I even said outloud I’m scared to just get it out of me. I finally grabbed onto the rope and worked on coming down, but it was a sloppy mess. I have convinced myself that’s it not the actual climbing up that’s scary, it’s the coming down. So hopefully this will help in the end. Again, in my head I know I would NEVER willingly let myself fall but it’s like I don’t trust me at all. When and if I get up there I don’t know that I will be able to come down without breaking my neck. I guess the best thing is that I still tried. But really, can someone hypnotize me to not be scared? Thanks!

8/20/13 WOD
Skill: ROPE CLIMB
Scaredy Cat

MetCon: 9 MU, 400m run, 7MU, 400m run, 5MU, 400m run
For us non Muscle Uppers, and not Chest to Bar folks. Just us ol Pull Uppers (with bands for me of course), we had to do 15, 12 and 9. So far today is a day of suck. Rope Climbs, Pull Ups and Running. My top weaknesses all in one day. How fun. But I didn’t sleep in. I showed up cause no matter how scared or how crappy I am at all the above, I knew sleeping in wasn’t going to help me get better! I moved as fast as I could on the Pull Ups. Only to move slow on my runs. Halfway through my first run, my right calf and hip were on fire. By the end of that run my shin was about to spontaneously combust. I’m sure of it. For the rest of the runs, it was just misery. I’d run/walk/run. I’ve never had shin pain like that until today. A combo of being completely stress on the rope. My right leg being my lead leg maybe was traumatized, lol. Who knows. I rolled it out the best I could post-WOD but I’m it will probably be achy for a day or two. Time: 14:23

8/20/13 WOD

Food note: I know it’s been a long time since I shared any food with you but I did make Avocado Deviled Eggs yesterday. I didn’t follow anyone’s recipe, just kind of winged it.

I used:
4 hardboiled eggs
1/2 avocado
splash of olive oil
mustard (although I don’t recommend, after taste test)
bacon

I’m a fan of deviled eggs and I prefer to use paleo mayo but I didn’t have that on hand. I did, however, have avocados. I’ve seen links and posts and always thought it sounded weird, but I was about to give it a try anyways.

Just like regular deviled eggs, you scoop out the yolk into a bowl and mash it all up. I then added avocado and continued mashing. The consistency was too thick for my liking so I added a little olive oil. This was helping but I still felt like it wasn’t enough. So even though avocado and mustard don’t sound great, I thought the mustard would help. I love the tang of mustard and it’s what I use in a normal deviled egg mixture but I wasn’t sure what would come of it. Stirred it all together and spooned it out into my egg halves. Topped with chopped up bacon. They looked pretty at least! And they tasted alright too. The mustard addition probably wasn’t the best idea though. I will definitely give it another try with the mustard.

So that’s all folks for this beautiful Tuesday. Let me know how you deal with silly fears. And don’t forget to be awesome!

Back Squats FOREVER!

First off, let me say HI to all the new followers! HI! I don’t know how you found me but I appreciate the likes and the follows ツ

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! It’s been a busy past couple of days and with the holiday weekend, I did not have time to get to any blogging in. But I did get some workouts in. I did get some good and not so good food in me and we FINALLY did a proper grocery shopping trip! Wooooo. High Five!

And Ernie is finally back to getting his ass in gear! Thank goodness for me because it’s so much easier when you have your support system back! For so long I’ve caved to his non Paleo, non CrossFitting ways! But now that we are both back on the same track I hope the failures will be less and less as time goes on! We’ll be back to our old selves in no time!

7/3/13 Boom Box
This was a “BEAR” of a work out and just an overall butt whoopin. It’s been a while since I’ve done bear crawls and lets just say my hips and shoulders were not happy!

7/3/13WOD

WarmUp: 400m Run, 30/30 GHD

Skill/Strength: Max Effort Ring Dips, Work Up to 50
My rotator cuffs are dead to me. They don’t support me in the bottom of a ring dip and it seems as if I will never master this movement. Does anyone have some fresh shoulders that I could borrow?

Not me in this pick but this is what I look like doing modified dips with bands.

MetCon: 2 minutes at each station of Max Distance Bear Crawl, Max KBS 1.5/1 POOD, Max Burpees, Max Bear Crawl. 30 seconds of rest between stations.

30 seconds is NOT enough time for rest! Holy geesh. On my first round of bear crawls I probably got 6 lengths of the box. Not great in my mind but battling hip failure, burnt out shoulders and a touch of dizzy was NO Fun. Moved onto Kettle Bell Swings and hot damn, my right hip was ready to explode. FIRE! I was pretty much done for by the time Burpees came along. I don’t even remember what I got but it was far less than what the healthier version of me would have completed! One more Bear Crawl to finish it off and I only got 4 lengths in. UGH! Total: 66 but I did it RX. Hahahah It counts!

7/4/13 Boom Box

It was Murph Day and I was going to show up but wasn’t sure if I was going to workout! In the end I was just a spectator. I had no want or drive to do the beast of a workout. But it was inspiring to watch everyone else. In the past on big hero WODs people tend to pair up and work together. This time around everyone went SOLO. It was amazing and I was super impressed by everyone’s determination!

Post Murph we had a little came of Wiffle Ball which turned out to be really fun. I wish more folks had stuck around to play. Maybe another time. So I did get a little sweat and fun in after all!

Food Note: I found some Kale Chips at Eatzi’s that turned out to be pretty tasty. The ingredients were clean and organic. The only downside to hardcore Paleo eaters was that there were Chickpeas in the ingredients. Other than that they were great. A little spendy but a great snack and beats junk food alternatives!

7/5/13 Boom Box
Friday was pretty much a day of lazy for us so I was suprised when Ernie was all let’s go up to Boom and workout! I was definitely ready to go but at the same time secretly wishing we’d just stay home!! Of course working out always feels great when it’s done so I’m glad we went.

7/5/13 – Had to steal this off instagram so it's not the best quality

7/5/13 WOD – Had to steal this off instagram so it’s not the best quality

Skill/Strength: Front squats; 5@60%; 3×5@70%
It seems that Front Squats don’t come around much and if they do I miss out on those days. They aren’t my favorite squat either but I felt good working. My last tested 1RM from who knows how long ago is 135lbs. So 80lbs and 95lbs didn’t sound heavy. By the last set, 95lbs felt heavy.

MetCon: 7 rounds of 2 minute AMRAP 30 situps, ME DU, Rest 1 min
Situps and Double Unders. Should be a win/win right here. I started off strong with the situps but the DU’s weren’t really working in my favor for the first round. I was tripping up a lot on the darn rope. After the 3rd round, I just was stuck at a slower pace for the situps. No matter how hard I tried to bust them out I was finishing around 50-58 seconds. Leaving me a minute to get max DUs! I stayed pretty consistent with the my DU count having only one really off round. All said and done I completed 333 DUs and was smoked! My calves were JELL-O on Saturday.

7/8/13
We took the weekend off so it was nice to have a little break but I definitely need to be putting in the work. Unfortunately my mindset for the Monday workout was not liking all the Back Squats that were about to go down!

7/8/13

Skill/Strength: Squat – 10@60%; 8@65%; 6@70%; 6@75%; 6@80%
WoooWeeeee. That’s a lot of squats on order. And everything just felt so HEAVY! Coach wants us to get STRONG!!!! Of course it’s what I need but just seeing it on the board makes me want to go home and sleep. I started at 100lbs and worked my way up to 130lbs. Even though all the reps can be intimidating it felt really great to finish strong.

MetCon: 10 minute AMRAP of 6 Deadlifts (225,155) and 6 HSPU or 3 Wall walks
Coach had us work up to a weight we were comfortable with for Deadlifts. My 1RM is 225 but multiple reps for time after all of those back squats was going to have to be less than 155lbs.I got to 135lbs and that seemed to suit me just fine. It was Wall Walks that I feared. I don’t have Handstand Push Ups down so I had to default to the Wall Walks. I have only ever had to do this movement one time before and it made me nauseous and dizzy. We only had to do 3 so I figured I’d survive but I wasn’t looking forward to it.

I moved the weight pretty nicely, and I thought I should have done RX but after a few rounds I was grateful I stuck with a slightly lower weight. The Wall Walks took the life out of me. My recovery time was slow. I couldn’t get to the bar fast and it took me forever to pick up the bar. Final: 6 rounds + 1 Deadlift.

Grocery Field Trip
It’s been so long since we’ve headed out to have a proper grocery trip so we decided to go big and drive to the ginormous WHOLE FOODS in Dallas. The one in Arlington is sufficient but it’s tiny and part of our regular routine. Going the Park Lane location was a fun little field trip. We didn’t spend hours strolling around but they seem to have a better selection of produce and meats. We stocked up for the week excited to be back on it.

So far so good. We’ve been cooking, eating our cooked food and feeling good. As I’ve mentioned before it’s amazing what a couple of days of all goodness will do to your body. My achy IT Band/Knee are no longer achy. My sore tight wrists are no longer sore and tight! It just feels good to feel good. Now I wish my muscles would just bounce back faster. With time I know they will. I’m just a big baby!

It’s Tuesday folks! What have you done to make a healthier you? Eat healthy fats? Drink more water? Get that body a movin? Let’s go.

Have a super day and don’t forget to be AWeSOMe!

Mission: Recommit to FIT

Cheesy I know but I am on a mission. And it’s about finding my fit again. It’s been over 2 weeks since I’ve last touch based with you all! And it’s been a blur. I started off so well at getting back on track and then it all became a roller coaster of eating good, then eating bad. Up, down, up, down. Last week was a total fail of getting to the Box as baseball consumed our every fiber. My desire to eat clean flew out the window.

So with the slowing down of baseball, I hope to regain my dedication to juggling the hectic life, eating clean and working out even if I can’t make it to the Boom Box. I will, I MUST stay active but more importantly I MUST EAT better. Part of my brain wants to go balls to the wall and do a 21 day sugar detox but part of me thinks that’s not such a great idea. So I’m just gonna go with as little sugar as possible for now. Eat clean, eat paleo. If it turns out I cut out sugar completely yay me! If not, then the reduction in general should be a WIN regardless.

So hopefully I’m back for good. No more absences/hiatuses/etc. Back to finding my happy place with paleo, clean eating and CrossFit. Back to integrating it all into the crazy schedules and back to having a plan. Being prepared.

I don’t have anything super awesome to share other than the fact I must succeed at this recommitment! I should be back at the BOOM Box this evening. Debating on signing up for the OLY class since it’s now available at a time slot I can attend. We’ll see. Baby steps 🙂 I started 2013 strong but have let the past 6 months bring me down. Here’s to hoping I finish 2013 like a beast!

For now enjoy your week. Happy JULY! Don’t forget to be AWESOME!

Elizabeth, It WAS…

not a pleasure to meet you! For those of you new to CrossFit or have no clue as to why there are workouts named after people, mostly women or in honor of Heroes, I’ll share what I’ve found:

Many have asked, “Why are the workouts named after Girls?” Since 1953 storms have been assigned female names by the National Weather Service as a quick identification method. It is this convenient and logic approach that inspired Coach Glassman to name the original 6: Angie, Barbara, Chelsea, Diane, Fran and Elizabeth after storms.

Coach Glassman, the founder and President of CrossFit explained it further. “I want to explain the workout once and then give it a name. I thought that anything that left you flat on your back, looking up at the sky asking ‘what just happened to me?’ deserved a females name. Workouts are just like storms, they wreak havoc on towns.”

The workouts named after GIRLS are benchmark workouts. You don’t do them all of the time but each time you do them over months, years, etc, the idea or hope is that you get better. Improved fitness. They are quantifiable and create this shared sense of ~~misery~~ happiness within each and every CrossFit Box.

And today I met Elizabeth. And me no likey! I have mentioned in the past how much I love to Clean! Clean the BAR that is and today I wasn’t feeling the same love.

Elizabeth

21-15-9 of Squat Cleans and Ring Dips (135/95)

I know I can clean the 95lbs but not sure if I can do that for 21-15-9 so I dropped to 85lbs. And I was a big ol baby. More than EVER. I didn’t even want to pick up the bar. I finally did and got through 11 like a champ. And then more BABY showed up. It took for what seemed like forever to get to 21. I moved to the ring dips and used a green band. I knocked out 15 pretty quickly then weakly busted out the last 6. If you thought I was a baby for 21 I was for sure a baby for the 15. I did 3 at a time but was out of energy and slow. I mentally hit every roadblock imaginable. I felt my wrists crying, I felt my back on a sloppy rep, I felt the FOOD, the BAD FOOD and it’s side effects. And that’s all I kept doing is reminding myself of my craptabulous weekend eating and how it was affecting me. I was a headcase. Finally finished 15 and moved to ring dips. For some reason even though my triceps were spent I wasn’t having as hard a time with the ring dips. Granted I’m using a band for assistance but it wasn’t feeling super rough. Finally got to the last round and I knocked them out in in 2 sets of 3 and then in singles! I did 7 ring dips, then 2, TIME: 13:30. Coach said the weight looked easy for me and it was all mental. And I believe that to be true. But I also felt like crap. Don’t F*** up your eating folks. It sucks donkey balls!

2/12/13 WOD

In rebuttal to eating so poorly over the weekend, I was on the push for getting food prepped last night so I had food ready to eat and cook. As soon as we walked in the door from baseball practice I was Johnny on the GO. It did not help however that there was a request for Cake Balls for the boy’s Valentine’s Day parties at school. So there I am baking away and sometimes tasting! I got it out of my system quick though cause when you have a lot of irons in the fire it’s hard to focus on indulging 😀 While cakes baked, I cooked asparagus, and cut up broccoli. I put some pasta sauce to simmer. Browned ground beef. Cut up sweet potatoes and made Paleo Mayo. I was a busy bee and it was well worth it!

2/11/13 Lunch – Sauteed Chicken, Mixed Veggies, Spinach, Cherry Tomatoes and Coconut Flakes

Hope everyone has a SWELL day! It’s rainy and icky here. Perfect for staying inside and finishing those cake balls I am committed to make! But first I have to survive the traffic home that is destined to come later this afternoon! You know the drill… BE AWESOME!

Broad Jumps are EVIL!

Whether it’s a warm up or an actual MetCon, I always find myself dying after Broad Jumps. It doesn’t help that I suck at them either. Man, you suck at everything! I hear your thoughts people. It is true but I get a little better each and every day. One day I may be able to say cause I’m awesome at Pull Ups or I’m awesome at Broad Jumps but today folks is not the day.

Skill/Strength: Deadlift 5 x 4 @ 80% of 1RM
As I have mentioned previously I am in fact feeling stronger in my Deadlifts. See I can be positive! And today was no different, I just wish my hands didn’t hurt so much holding on to that dang bar. 160lbs felt heavy at first but as I went along it was feeling pretty good.

2/8/13 WOD

MetCon: 8 rounds of Broad Jumps for 50yds, Sprint 50yds, REST 1 minute as a group
Good thing about this MetCon is that there wasn’t time or reps to be recorded. But there was plenty of pain to be had! I am not good at the Broad Jump. I don’t cover great distances and I only did decent on the first two rounds. After that it was just silly. 50yds doesn’t seem that far until you are jumping. Deadlifts then broad jumps, then SPRINTING (jogging) I seriously thought my ass was going to fall off of my body. By round 4 I was ready to QUIT CrossFit!

Eats, Ups and Downs.
So here I am telling you I was strong and doing it all right and last night I go eat a sandwich from Chick-fil-a and I’m not going to lie it was good and I savored it. I did. And just like at the Super Bowl party, it’s totally not necessary. I didn’t feel bad or anything but my stomach was not liking me this morning! TMI? Nah, it’s life people. It’s like I just want to have to say I had it. I ate the food, the bad food that tastes oh so good. And then I’m all, eh, it was good but not worth it. SUSHI is worth it though! Anyhow. Sometimes you don’t feel like cooking and Chipotle does not sound good. After much mumbling and grumbling from Ernie trying to will me out of eating the sandwich I still ate it. I don’t have any further plans to go rogue as I like feeling good before, during and after my workouts. I like feeling good all day. At the same time I can’t sit here and say I’m perfect when I am not. I want to be transparent with y’all. I don’t think I’ve ever purposely not shared anything with you all in the first place but I’m just putting it out there. I’m an open book.

See, still eating well! Chicken & broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato, avocado and kiwi!

This week I hope to be more adventurous in cooking foods. I need to mix it up. Try new things. Anyone else mixing it up? Going outside their normal routines? Got some recipes to share?

I do hope everyone has a great weekend! Might rain around here…boooo, but we’ll still make it great! And make it AWESOME!

It’s One of Those Days

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

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

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

2/5/13 WOD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Skills to pay the bills – NOPE

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?

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.

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

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.

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!

Day 30 – Whole30

Hooray! My last day of Whole30 has finally arrived! I’m quite confident I’ll finish the day on a good note and just keep going on tomorrow as if I’m still in it. I feel really good. I feel fantastic. Words can not express how GREAT it feels to feel good all day, EVERYDAY!

I just wish I could let everyone have a mental and physical peek into a world where you aren’t drained midday. Where you can get good sleep. Where you aren’t consumed by tired, pain and headaches. Then you could know and then you would just do it! I’ve recapped my joureny so you can read about it but I want you to really FEEL it! Because I KNOW it’s HARD. It’s time consuming. It’s whatever excuse you can possibly dream of that suits your need at the moment. I get it. I’ve been there a BAZILLION times! But rebooting, starting with a CLEAN (food) slate and working the program WORKS! Whole30 gives you the support to make it through.

If you are just joining me, please know, this isn’t my first rodeo as it might have been for some of you readers, or maybe you’re still researching if it’s worth it! I can tell you it’s worth it. But for me, I’ve been eating Paleo for over a year now. I did the 21-Day Sugar Detox back in May which helped me tremendously because although I was Paleo, I was still eating too much fruit, honey and maple syrup because I was trying to Paleo-fy all sorts of desserts. I was a sugar addict. I held strong for a few months but I went off the rails at the end of 2012. I needed a reboot. I needed to reprogram. Whole30 is exactly what I needed. I jumped into the deep end of the pool. I bought their success guide, I subscribed to the emails. I went out and bought It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig (founders of Whole30). You don’t have to do all of that, you can follow everything they have online, on their blog and on the forums. But for me, being armed with as much literature and reference is what I needed. I carried around my success guide for the first 2 weeks along with my ISWF book. Also it helps me tell other people who inquire what it is that I’m doing and most of all WHY I am doing it.

I’ve documented my days, foods and moods in my posts starting January 2. Some days I was detailed and some days I just gave a general outline. In a week I was out of my “fat girl” pants. That’s when I knew I had to change something in the first place. My “fat girl” pants were getting snug. How SAD is that? But it’s true. I was so bloated. So filled with junk that I was just expanding. After the first week, I was feeling pretty fantastic. That’s how quick it happened for me. But remember again, my body already KNEW what this change was like. It just missed it and I think I bounced back much more quickly than others that are new to this kind of change might feel in a week. A lot of is mental as well. You want your wine, your dessert, your fast food. It’s so good and life isn’t worth living if you can’t enjoy those treasures, right? WRONG! Your life isn’t over because you cut out that stuff for 30 days. It’s 30 days folks! The #1 thing that stood out to me in ISWF is that Dallas and Melissa say “CANCER is hard, QUITTING a drug habit is hard, etc.” Giving up some foods for 30 days is not hard. We are all adults. It’s true. Start acting like one.

And let me tell you food doesn’t have to be “bleh”. It can be awesome. Some of the foods I’ve made this past month have been some of my kids favorite meals! Sure you may NOT WANT to cook and you figure a plain piece of baked chicken is fine then great for you. But that plain chicken is going to get old fast! Add some cumin, garlic, FLAVOR. Add some Whole30 approved ingredient salsa. Spice it up. You can still LOVE food while cutting out grains, legumes, dairy and alcohol. I’ve been honest with y’all in my posts. I did lose the motivation to cook and prep day in and day out! I’m not the kind of prep person who does it all on Sunday and then I’m set for the week. I prep 1-2 days ahead because I’m just that way. And it has worked for me! You will have to experiment what will work for you. It can be done.

1/30/13 Lunch – spinach salad with tomatoes and bacon, grassfed chili, strawberries.

Day 30 Breakfast – Chicken Thighs, Sweet Potato Latkes, Asparagus.

Whole30 is strict. They are serious! They want you to have positive results! I WANT YOU TO HAVE POSITIVE results! I know you will if you plan for this. 30 days! I have had ZERO brain fog. My ankles and wrists were hurting every morning and now it’s GONE! I was getting headaches, more specifically MIGRAINES that I hadn’t had in a year and now they are GONE! I’m not bloated all day, every day. I don’t feel bloated after I eat. I have ENERGY. So much energy my kids think I have become crazy. Dancing in the kitchen. Making up songs for me to dance too. Laughing more and enjoying life just a little more. Not everyday is rainbows and unicorns because life does happen but it’s not a result of my body quitting on me. It’s just a result of outside factors. And well that’s just LIFE! Don’t let food run your life. Let you run your life!

As far as working out. Let me tell you, you don’t have to be hardcore. You just need to be active. 80% of losing weight and maintaining weight is in the nutrition. That other 20% just boosts it. Not to mention that you’ll feel better because you’ll have even more energy, even better sleep and just feel like a better person. I do CrossFit. I love CrossFit. I have become stronger than I could have imagined. And I believe although I COMPLAIN alot that I have become better at my workouts with the clean eating. If you’ve recently read, last year we had to do 7 minutes of burpees. I finished with 74 a year ago and I was eating Paleo but pushing the boundaries. Just this past Saturday we did the same workout and I did 112! WTH? It’s almost unbelievable but I had witnesses to the work I was putting in. I was on a happy high the whole weekend. It felt good. It was AWESOME! I PR’d my Strict Press as well. 5lbs. Doesn’t sound like a lot but I’ve been stuck at 70lbs FOREVER!

I give Whole30 credit for all the positive things that have happened this past month. Too bad they can’t help me win the LOTTERY. But I feel like a BADASS, clean eating, Happy person! I took a “before” picture which I’m hesitant to share, and I weighed. I’ll weigh tomorrow since I still have to make it through today and hopefully take an after picture. I’m not perfect by any means, I don’t have ABS of steel. Just lots of pregnancy damage from having 3 kids. I don’t have perfectly toned cellulite free legs but they are thinner than they were 30 days ago. I don’t have GUNS for biceps either. I’m still flawed but I’ve learned slowly over the past year to let go of it. It still creeps in every now and then. But feeling good and feeling strong helps trump those negative “self” feelings.

I really give It Starts With Food credit for the information that I’m armed with to help me to stay on track. The Hartwigs really put the “sciencey” stuff into terms that made sense to me. They give you the info to understand how our body works after we’ve wrecked it with processed, sugary and chemical foods. They break it down. They give you examples that related to me, so I’m sure they would relate to you. They taught me about FOOD with NO BRAKES! They taught me how to balance my eating. They taught me to love healthy fats. They taught me how the food industry is SNEAKY! They gave me the armor to deal with my mental issues and to enjoy cleaning my slate. It’s a book I’ll probably reference forever. I highly suggest you go out and buy it.

Alright, alright. I’m done. If you want to know what I’ve been eating then please peruse my previous posts. I can’t give you all the Whole30 deets. I’m sure the Hartwigs wouldn’t want that. But I’m here if you have questions. I would love to be your support system. I want change for you! I really do! I’m ready to finish Day 30 just to say I did it! But I know Day 31 will be Whole30 and hopefully I can just go until I have that special event or moment where I can enjoy something decadent and sinful. But until that moment comes I’ll stay clean the best I can.

Back to the box tomorrow and for those of you who read yesterday, I did go check out the Boxing place. I’ll report on that tomorrow. Have a beautiful Thursday! Can you believe it’s February tomorrow?!? Wow! Well you know the drill go out and BE AWESOME in all that you do!

idrankthecfkoolaid

and it's good

paleo

Not so drained, but a little agitated

It has begun – Whole30

Rope Climbs Scare Me

Back Squats FOREVER!

Mission: Recommit to FIT

Elizabeth, It WAS…

Broad Jumps are EVIL!

It’s One of Those Days

Skills to pay the bills – NOPE

Day 30 – Whole30

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: