Sleep WOD – I WIN!

I win the SLACKER award Yup slept right through ALARM! No CrossFit Boom for me today. After having a great start to my day yesterday, the drive home, the traffic, the rain, the errand running finally got to me. I got home drained, watched some TV, prepped some food, actually did some mobility and went to bed. I seriously could have slept a few more hours if it wasn’t for kids having school and me having a job I have to attend. And now it’s cold outside, AGAIN. Two days of shorts and flip flop weather and now COLD. Bleh.

Whole30 Days 28 & 29
In between my errand running last night, I found some raw trail mix. All good stuff – Raisins, Almonds, Cashews, Pumpkin Seed, Sunflower Seeds. Of course all of those ingredients fall into the eat occassionaly category but it still QUALIFIES for Whole30. As I was waiting at the pharmacy FOREVER, I found myself eating said trail mix. And eating way too much! It was boredom, tired, eating. I wasn’t starving or anything but BAD habits still live, ARGH! I figured I ate enough to not NEED dinner. I still cooked foods and made sure the chicken thighs were acceptable but I didn’t have a full blown sit down and eat meal. So I didn’t hit the perfect mark for dinner but at least I stayed compliant in regards to the foods I ate.

1/29/13 Lunch – Skirt Steak, Kale, Asparagus, Berries

This morning, I had a nice mix of Sweet Potato Latkes, Skirt Steak and Spinach. Besides sleeping extra heavily, I still feel good. The cool weather makes me want to crawl back into bed but that’s just the lazy part of me talking. Tomorrow is my last day of the Whole30. Wooo. Is it sad that all I keep thinking about is “will I or won’t I eat those Chick-fil-a nuggets that we are serving at my son’s birthday party on Sat?” I hope I don’t. I know they won’t kill me but I hope I can rise above that. Not to mention cupcakes and cookies! Hahahah. Y’all will be the first to know of course. Well other than those witnessing me!

That’s it for this SLACKER Wednesday. Maybe I can hit up a kickboxing place at a nearby Boxing place tonight. They are fairly new in the area and I have been interested in checking it out! We’ll see. Other than that, I encourage you to get moving! Walk a little. Do some squats. Has anybody been making changes at all? I hope so! You know the drill BE AWESOME!

FUN Fun FuN

This morning at the BOOM Box was FUN! I can honestly say that and I’m happy to say that. I love getting a good workout it but I love it more when it’s something new and I didn’t completely suck at it! I also think all this clean eating has cycled it’s way through all the ups and downs and I’m on an UPSWING.

Skill/Strength: Handstand Push Ups
I want to be good at these so bad. And little by little I’m getting there. We started out with just a few handstand holds. When you don’t do handstands often, it takes a while to feel comfortable. I can always pop into one, but over and over, I get dizzy fast. Of course I can’t do a full one YET but getting there. With some stacking of foam, I don’t have to go down as far but eventually I’ll have to do them without modification. The highlight of our working through them is that I got kipping down pretty good. I was one foam pad away from doing it properly but I think by then I was just fatigued.

1/29/13 WOD

MetCon: 30 AXLE Ground to Overhead
AXLE??!!?? WTH? Big ol fat bars is what that is and I saw them on Saturday but didn’t bother asking because I feared it was insanity. Turns out I kind of liked them… shhhh, don’t tell my Coach! So this is GRACE with a fat bar. NERVES activated. Coach suggested for us to put our thumbs over the bar since it is so fat and hard to get a grip on it. On top of that it doesn’t have the spin that a Barbell has so it’s a much different feeling. So the positive on this is that we should gain grip strength and should really learn to explode from the hips. The bonus about this bar is that it’s smooth and it felt much better in my hands. No need for taping up my thumbs! The video below shows a guy working on Ground To Overhead. His first grip is what we worked on. The second grip that he uses is the Continental grip that I just learned about via the WEBS. It’s awkward and I watched a lot of videos where I think that grip is not fun at all. So I’m glad we stuck with something more simple. Maybe when there’s more weight on the bar it’s necessary? I’m not sure. I’ll cross that bridge (hopefully NEVER) when it gets here.

So I was a little bit nervous. Holding a new bar with a new grip. I like to let fear get into my brain if you haven’t figured that out. Surprisingly with 50lbs it wasn’t so bad. I struggled getting centered at first but I got it down. Jumped up to 70lbs as prescribed for the MetCon and really thought, OH SHIT it’s going to be a brick wall. But it wasn’t. Now it was time to do 30 in a row. I pushed out 6, then 6 more, then the wrists started fading, forearms, I’m exhausted now and I’m not even halfway. Started chipping away 3 at time till I finished. Time: 5:09 I was spent but I was happy I did it. Confidence is that you? Where have you been all this time? Please stay a while!

HOLY BRUISES BATMAN! Had no idea this happened to my collar bone Cleaning the BAR until I go home, see my reflection. Typically my shoulders might get some bruising with the regular bar. My thighs for sure catching the bar on the way down. But this hurts! OUCHY MAMA!

Whole30 Days 27 & 28
Man… DDay is almost here! I’m so excited for my completion. Not so I can dive off the deep end into a big ol pie but just to say I completed it –100%, although that salmon from PF Changs could make that less but seriously, WILLINGLY 100%. No justifications. No swerving off the path. And not half ass. I worked at eating balanced meals, getting my fat in. Getting in a variety of veggies. Working the plan.

1/28/13 Dinner – Skirt Steak, Mixed Veggies, Coconut Flakes

You saw lunch yesterday and dinner was some skirt steak with mixed veggies. I had also cooked asparagus but I wasn’t that hungry last night. Which is fine by me. So I saved asparagus for today. I also made some Kale for lunch today to go with my left over skirt steak. I’ve been having trouble getting it to tender up. So I had one of my kids massage it for a good while before I left it overnight to marinate. It turned out a little less tough/chewy so hopefully that was the key.

I’m feeling a little better about getting prepped at least a day ahead. So I guess I was just in a mental(hormonal) funk! Tonight will be Chicken Thighs and maybe a salad. We’ll see.

Happy Tuesday! Despite the cloudy, windy, gloomy day, I FEEL GREAT! I know some of you must think I’m a loon ball but I can’t tell you enough how amazing it feels to FEEL good! All day. Bright eyed. NO brain fog. Wooooooo! Love it! Go now, be awesome!

Home Stretch

It’s so close – Day 27 of the WHOLE30 and you know what? This train isn’t stopping! I still wish I had a chef to alleviate some of the burden that goes into it all but I’m not holding my breath on that one. The big challenge will be Birthday Cupcakes at my son’s birthday party this weekend! I think I’ll be fine since at this moment that doesn’t even sound good. But who knows by then. I should be fine.

Whole30 Days 24-27
The weekends have become easier to manage. In the past I either skipped meals or lived on fruit and junk of some form but I’m managing well with 3 meals a day. It helped that I made chili this weekend. Yesterday was the first day I felt a nap was in order, I think I was just spent from my CrossFit workout the day before but who knows. My hormones are still changing so it’s been all sorts of chaos on my mental state. I wish that would go away ASAP!

Went to PF Changs for my baby boy’s birthday. Risky I know. I googled it of course and partakers of Whole30 suggested the Gluten Free, Steamed Salmon and Ginger. So that’s what I ordered, no sauces on anything. Of course the server looked at me funny and said well the Chicken Lettuce Wraps you ordered weren’t special, I said I know, those are for them, not me 😦 OH how I LOVE the lettuce wraps. They would have been fine if they weren’t cooked in a sauce that has rice wine and sugar

I patiently waited for my food as it was the last to come out. Took a few bites and it was delicious! Flavorful and I’m not a huge fan of salmon. All the veggies were steamed as well. I busted out my bottle of Coconut Aminos, YES I DID! and splashed some on my foods. I probably would have been fine without but it was good anyways. Not too bad, even watched the family all get dessert. Although I wish I could had a sample, I powered through. Got home, started prepping my Chili for dinner and I had to rush, RUN to the bathroom. Not sure if there was something in that Salmon or if it was just fish itself but I fear it wasn’t Whole30 compliant. I won’t ever know though and I’m not quitting or starting over based on that. I felt fine the rest of the day.

As you can see or NOT see, I haven’t been taking any GOOD pics of my meals but I’ll share my Chili Pic with you. It’s not impressive but the actual food was good.

Not the best pic, Chili with sweet potato, avocado on top. YUM!

1/28/13 Lunch – Chili, Spinach Salad, Broccoli, Kiwi

Chili Ingredients:
2lbs grassfed ground beef (chili cut, Burgandy Beef has a less ground beef just for chili, good stuff)
2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 onion
1 garlic glove
1 sweet potato (cubed)
1 TBS cooking fat
Spices: cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder, cayenne, red chili flakes, cinnamon ( I have no measurement as I just pour to my liking. I like heavy on the spice.

Saute onions and garlic in cooking fat, ghee for me, until onions start getting soft. Add ground beef. Add spices. Cook through. All the while I have the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and sweet potato warming up in my crockpot. You could do this all on stove as well. Once the ground beef is browned, dump into crockpot. Cook on high for 1-2 hours, check sweet potatoes. If they are soft, then you are good to go, If not let cook on low for another hour.

I would have added red, green and yellow peppers if I had them but I didn’t. It’s chili, add what you want. Turned out great! And sweet due to those sweet potatoes! Good stuff.

1/26/13 WOD
I was very sore walking into the BOOM Box Saturday morning. REALLY sore. My shoulders were dead, my hamstrings were dead and what was on the board: deadlifts and burpees!

Skill/Strength: 3 x 5 Deadlift @ 75% of 1RM
It’s been a LONG time since I’ve deadlifted. I think the last time is when I PR’d. And that was a while back now. So getting back to this lift was awkward but nice to do. 150lbs is my weight and overall I felt good. Had some small items to work on but didn’t lose all technique, thank goodness.

1/26/13 WOD

MetCon: 12.1! For those of you who don’t know, that was WOD 1 for the CrossFit Games Open last year. 7 minutes of Burpees! Oh the hell! We looked up our reps from last year and I got 74. Coach went around asking what our goals were for this time around and I said 75! Seriously. I’d be good with that. 3-2-1 GO! I was determined not to burn out too fast like I did last year. So I just went with the goal of “DON’T STOP”. Coaches were yelling out time left but it wasn’t really registering. I just thought this is the longest 7 minutes ever. I finally hit 75 reps and thought well shit I gotta keep going. Then I just said go and went H.A.M till I got to 90.

Then I thought I was going to die but there was still 2 minutes left. I just kept going up and down, making all kinds of mad noises. Final: 112! WOOOOOO! I don’t know where that came from but I was all sorts of Happy. Made my day indeed! After I stopped rolling on the ground like a flailing weirdo, I sat up and said Whole30! Strict clean eating!

1/28/13 WOD
Still dead from the Burpees. My shoulders are TOAST! Today was nice and HUMID. 62° and HUMID! We aren’t used to this right now. So much better than FREEZING! I fear February will bring us SUPER COLD though. We need it to kill the buggies but I don’t like it!

Skill/Strength: 3 x 3 Back Squat @ 90% of 1RM
Yup that got heavy fast. My shoulder mobility sucked so bad holding on to the bar. UGH! My hips were dead too. I worked on my hip mobility after my first set and Coach noticed a big difference. I could feel it and knew then that I should have done both sides, but my right side is the painful side. Ah well. Got through the lifts ok. I’m not feeling explosive on the way back up. Hopefully that’s just a side effect of being smoked!

1/28/13 WOD

MetCon: 100 Double Unders, 75 HR Push Ups, 50 TTB, 25 Pull Ups. You have 5 minutes to complete each movement. If you finish early in your 5 minutes of one movement, you get to rest! Record time finished.
So we have 5 minutes to do 100 DUs, 5 minutes to do the Push Ups and so forth. A timed chipper I guess is best to describe it. I was already scare of DUs just because my shoulders are so tight, sore, etc. Shoulders go fast when they are already useless to you. Then PUSH UPS next. Not good! I finished DU’s in a little over 2 minutes, I can’t recall specific times but I know it was 2 something. It was a good rest till HR Push UPs. I struggled but managed to finish in a little over 4 minutes. Enough time to get handguards on for TTB, errr Knees to Elbow for me. I found my kip and got 10 in a row. Went back for another 10, then hit a wall. Only getting 5 at a time, then only 3, then 2. Finished under 4 minutes on this one though! Only 25 Pull Ups but it’s still alot in my book. Did 5, 5, 3, 2, 1, 2 and 1’d and 2’d it till the end. Finished in 4:20 I think, not sure, Final time (added up): 14:25.

There you have it folks. My weekend wrap up! Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. It’s a whole new week. Make that change you are thinking about, stop thinking about it! And be Awesome all the while!

Pressing On

Yup I’m pressing on. I have been feeling weak. It’s true. But in the end I know I’m getting better. It may not be as huge as others but I know that slowly but surely things are clicking (except for pull ups of course). And this morning in the car I heard an old favorite song of mine by RelientK and it just got me amped that I just have to Press On. Leave all my crap behind. So here goes it. If you’ve stuck around with me long enough you know I have these ups and downs. I realize it. But it’s still gonna happen. I’m pretty sure that’s just a part of being human. 😀

We’ve had unusual warm temps and it’s been quite nice showing up to the BOOM Box not freezing to death. I definitely think it helps that we are warmed up much more quickly.

Skill/Strength: Press 1,1,1,1,1
With Press my weight is low so there’s not much in regards to jumping through weight. After several rounds of warm up, Leigh and I decided to start at 55lbs for our first 1 rep. The goal was to do 55, 65, 70, 75, 80. Being that 70lbs is my 1RM that I’ve been stuck at that would give me two attempts to PR. When we got to 70lbs we traded out the 10lb and 5lb plates for 15lb plates and 2.5lb plates. Oh but I wasn’t paying attention. And the 5lbs were on there. So I go for my 3rd attempt and think wow this isn’t easy and it’s 70lbs which I tend to do fine. WOW I SUCK! Well I get it up and rack it. Notice the 5lbs and realize I just PR’d! Finally! I broke that damn 70lb wall I’ve been hitting for so long. Of course a PR gets you all excited so you want to see if you can jump even more, but that didn’t happen. 80lbs was not in my cards today. Still happy for my little PR.

1/25/13 WOD

MetCon: 20 EMOM – Even Minutes 2 MU, 6 CTB, 8 Chin Ups, 10 Ring Rows; Odd minutes 5 Press @65% of your heaviest in the strength portion. If you didn’t go RX then you had a buyout of 40 Ring Dips.
Leave it to me to screw up in the first round! I thought I had to do 2 Pull Ups because I saw the 2 in front of MU and wasn’t using my brain. So I was done really fast not realizing I owed 6 more reps. I moved on to minute 2 clueless and proceeded with Press. Went back to Pull Ups and everyone realized I didn’t do 8, doh! It wasn’t on purpose. I went and finished my 8. It definitely was not on purpose. But that first round was failed because I didn’t finish Pull Ups. As the minutes wound down. I had 3 more failed rounds due to Pull Ups. I finished all my Presses at 50lbs. So I had a total of 6 rounds completed. I still put Pull Up effort in managing about 5 each round I failed at. I proceeded to do my ring dips in sets of 10’s. That gave us enough time to rotate with everyone else. I feel better at those, band assisted of course, but dang my shoulders were DEAD! I’m hoping tomorrow involves Cleans or something I’m good at!

Whole30 Days 23 & 24
Still not excited about cooking but still plugging away at it. I can’t imagine myself eating anything else though. So even though I’m still having a hard time finding the excitement in cooking you still will find me in the kitchen prepping away. And the kids seem to find some fun in helping me every now and then. I think they are more about the sampling than anything but if they are going to be in the kitchen they know they will be put to work. So it’s a WIN/WIN situation!

1/24/13 Lunch – Sauteed Chicken, tomatoes adn spinach, with sweet potato chips and kiwi.

Last night, I was really at a loss on what to eat. I did remember to portion out some chicken for me for dinner since I knew Ernie would be gone for the evening. Whew. Saved my day right there, because by the time I got home from work and baseball I forgot. I was seriously stressing over what I was gonna eat. I had a whole chicken defrosted but I like to roast those and I didn’t want to wait the hour for it to cook. So after I got the whole chicken cooking. I got some onions, tomatoes and chicken warming up in a skillet. Added some red chard and dinner was done! My favorite way of eating has become this skillet meal of proteins and leafy greens. It works. Eat some coconut flakes, guac or sunflower butter and I’m good. It’s quick easy and it always tastes good.

1/24/13 Dinner – More sauteed chicken, onions, tomatoes, red chard, guacamole.

Once the whole chicken was done roasting I portioned it out for Ernie, me and extras. Unfortunately before I portioned it out, I ate pretty much all of the skin. It was extra tasty last night and I just couldn’t help myself. How bad am I?

This morning, I ate some of the roast chicken for my PWO meal and a carrot. While I was eating all of that, I had some bone broth heating up and I was adding the rest of the chicken to that along with sweet potatoes, carrots, onions and spinach. My oldest wanted some so I got out more chicken broth, doubled the veggies and we both had lunch cooking away. Now’s the time I wish I would invest in a thermos!

24 Days and I’m killing it! I’m feeling really awesome. Even when I did the 21-Day Sugar Detox I caved for Mother’s Day. I paid for it and fell into a sugar coma. But on Whole30 that 1-2 servings of fruit is good for me. I don’t eat fruit everyday but knowing it’s not restricted I think is better for me mentally. I just found Dare You to Blog yesterday and Meredith wrote about her sugar detox experience. And the one thing that stuck out most was her comment that food will always be there:

Food will always be there. I am fortunate enough to be in a place where the treats and cheats I may be tempted by, such as the frozen yogurt mentioned above, will always be available to me. I don’t need to have this froyo now, or those chocolate-covered almonds today. I don’t need to dig in to the free bagel breakfast or the rice-rolled sushi at this very moment. When I want it, when I’m ready for it, it will be there waiting for me. With that in mind…

She’s so right! Why haven’t I implemented this same thought process! I mean it’s not like it’s wiped off the face of the planet. It’s not going ANYWHERE. For me those little words were like a breath of fresh air. A new perspective. Cleaning up is good for you. It’s not gonna hurt you and if you don’t like it, ah well. Go back to your ways of dirty, processed, sugary, chemical eating. I keep telling you I feel great though. I haven’t felt bloated or achy in any regards beside sore muscles. In December I was waking up with pains in my wrists. Now all that pain is gone. I have had one headache but that was on my major cleaning day and I’m pretty sure it was chemical induced from cleaners. There is ZERO brain fog which is great.

If you’ve ever eaten clean for an extended period of time and then went off the rails then you must be able to relate. It’s almost like you’re hungover or under the influence for sure. It’s bad and so weird how eating one or two meals that aren’t clean can do that to you. No one has any idea that they too are living in brain fog until you clean up your eating! It’s crazy. 6 days to go but I’m in a good groove. Let’s hope the groove keeps on rolling!

Friday! Deep Breath In! Yay for Friday! Have a magnificent weekend! My youngest will be 10 tomorrow! Double Digits. Young men I have, 3 young men! Aaahhhh. I wish they wouldn’t grow up so fast! Anyhoo, BE AWESOME in all that you DO! Press ON!

yawn!

I probably could have used one more hour of sleep last night. I’m sleepy today. I was really sad when my alarm went off this morning even though I knew the WOD for the day would be – Double Unders!

I underestimated how smoked my shoulders would be after the beating I took from Cindy yesterday! And smoked they were and extra crispy now sitting here typing away. Skill/Strength consisted of DU work. I got this! NOT!

1/22/13 WOD

MetCon: 300 DUs, with 3 burpees EMOM OR 100 burpees with 2 Box Jumps EMOM
I don’t think I would choose burpees as my first option ever but after the way I struggled with the DUs this morning, it may have been a better decision! 3-2-1 GO 3 burpees. Whoa those hurt! It took me a little bit to get into the groove for DUs. Seriously a few minutes. I was struggling for some reason. Then the burpees. I ended having to do 30 but those wore on me fast! I thought I may have cried if I didn’t finish within the minute. Thankfully I busted out my last 30 before 11 minutes came up. Time 10:52 I really thought I’d do much better than that. Ah well.

Whole 30 Days 20-21
Feeling a little more motivated to cook again. Although last night I was pushing it to a little later than I would like. After running some errands and sadly picking up the boys some fast food, I finally got home to cook my dinner. Turns out I really cooked my lunch and ate leftovers for dinner because I didn’t want to be eating at 9pm. It worked out well as I reheated and crispified some delicious Chicken Thighs. Threw the thighs together on top of a spinach salad with tomatoes and blackberries. Had a side of sweet potatoes and some coconut flakes and I was golden! While I was doing all of that I was baking Ernie a sweet potato, cooking asparagus and two hefty steaks. All is done son!

Lunch 1/21/13 – Cut up steak marinated in coconut aminos and other spices, roasted cauliflower, sauteed mixed veggies.

Dinner 1/22/13 – Chicken thighs on a bed of spinach, grape tomatoes and blackberries.

Day 21
Sleep is oh so important. It’s taking me a while to wind up for the day. My eyes are droopy and my body is beat down. It doesn’t help I sit at a desk all day. I’m tired! Post workout I had some egg whites and chicken sausage (so delightful). For breakfast I cooked up some cubed sweet potato, threw that in with some beef I had for lunch yesterday and inhaled a ziplock baggie full of baby spinach. My kids think I’m totally insane because I’m just stuffing raw spinach in my face as we are en route to school! Good times, Good times indeed! I’ve been feeling good, never having those HANGRY pains. Just happy to eat. Satiated and good to go until the next meal. Water is KEY and I can tell when I get behind on that. It’s been rare, but it does happen. I haven’t had one craving to snack, munch or nibble on something. And I definitely am not wishing for a power nap in the middle of the afternoon.

To top it off I gotta figure out what kind of treat to get my youngest for his upcoming BIG 10YR Birthday, but none of the sweet temptations are even tempting on my brain or salivary glands. So I feel pretty confident I won’t just dive into a pile of cupcakes or cookies. So far Whole30 is treating me fairly well. Only 9 more days of super STRICT everything, but I’m not opposed to keep on keepin on. And just save any badness for events that are worthy! I don’t know what reintroducing bad foods will do to me either and sure don’t want to screw it up. After reading ISWF I really wish I could go on in perfect la la land forever! For those of you that don’t know – 80% of our immune system comes from our GUT so why do I want to screw that up after I’ve been eating so well to clean it up! You would think that decision would be easy. Clean HEALTHY living or take a gamble. But you say OH FOOD IS SO GOOD! ENJOY LIFE! TAKE THE GAMBLE! But really? Is it that great having MIGRAINES?!? I had more than my fare share in the month of December. There’s so much more rewarding stuff out there that doesn’t have to do with food. I’m not perfect. I’m not saying I won’t indulge in some ice cream at some point or a cupcake, I’m just saying I really am hoping I can be stronger than I have been in the past! Keep Calm and Whole30 On, Right?

Nobody was all that interested in my silly little 30 day $30 prize, but I’ll tell you my teenager was like I’ll do it. I told him if no one showed interest by Friday then I would let him and Ernie duke it out. See who stays on target, IF THEY CAN STAY ON TARGET! $30 is still a lot to a 13 yr old. If I could give away $300 I would. One day, One day!

Have a pleasant day. Relax a little. Breathe! and Be Awesome!

Mental, Mental, Mental

Yup it’s true, and most of you know by now, I’m mental. Sometimes I exude overconfidence but mostly I’m just a basketcase! I have officially made it to day 20 of Whole30! Only 10 days to go. This weekend I struggled the most with wanting NOT GOOD FOR ME CRAP! Not sure why. A little more stressed than normal. Hormones playing with my emotions. I stayed on course and ate my meals and followed through, but mentally I struggled a little more than I had thought I would at this point. Only because it’s been pretty smooth sailing until Friday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not throwing in the towel. But boy a taste of ice cream would have been delightful! In the END I stayed STRONG! It’s not that hard folks.

You gotta stop the excuses. Seriously. In It Starts With Food they have a lot of tough love moments and to me it’s really not even tough love, it’s REALITY. The reality is we are all grown ups. We all know what’s good and bad for us but we just make excuses. Being overweight, having PRE-DIABETES, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, joint pains, migraines, high cholesterol, etc are not good for you and YOU know that. Those are side effects of eating processed foods, sugary foods and those said foods cooked in VEGETABLE OIL (yes highly processed oils made from vegetables). Those are side effects of eating CHEMICAL SUGAR with no Calories as well! Yet here is the majority of society not giving a damn. Or those trying to give a damn by counting calories or points. If you just lay off the JUNK (btw it’s not food, just JUNK), eat real food, drink plenty of water and drop those “DIET DRINKS”, I can PROMISE you that you will not only feel change, you will see change. Ya I’m not a Dr., but I know change will come. I don’t think a Dr. is going to tell you it’s BAD for you to try to eat real foods. I’m sure there will be some that advocate grain and milk but I bet they can’t tell you something bad will happen if you don’t eat them. Once again, I ask you to give it a try. Suck it up and just SEE. 30 days!

My heart wants everyone to be healthy. And sure there are “many” ways to get healthy but fretting over calories and snacks will drive you to insanity and FAILURE. Want a prize? I’m up for giving something away. It won’t be large because I don’t have the income that provides large. Let’s go with a $30 incentive. Since I’m asking you to go for 30 days. Again it’s not a lot but I’m thinking some sort of gift card that you can use towards something for your kitchen, to help you out for prepping your whole, clean and healthy foods! Have you eaten your weight in girl scout cookies? Can you not let go of that ice cream after dinner habit? Then why not try something NEW? If you’re up for the challenge, then comment below. We’ll go over details. YES it’s going to be based on WHOLE30. Yes that’s called clean eating. Paleo. Whatever. Just do it though! I know you could all be a bunch of liars, but I’m hoping whoever is up for it will be truthful, take before and after pics and also keep in touch with me every couple of days to let me know their status. So it’s out there. A small prize for you making a little bit of effort. Anyone in?

1/19/13 WOD

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. Ours was pretty good. I finally got to cleaning my house which was way overdue. Now if someone would just mop my kitchen floor for me. That would be fantastic! But before clean fest happened I did stop in at the good ol BOOM Box!

MetCon: TABATA of Hollow Rocks and Superman Rocks 2 minute rest then Death By Thrusters (65lbs)

Hollow Rock, you rock in this position. Killer on the ABS! Flip over on your stomack for Superman Rocks.

I know TABATA anything will hurt. Little did I know Hollow Rocks are horrid in TABATA fashion. Superman Rocks are another one of my strengths, DUs being my other. So those weren’t so bad.

1/19/13 WOD

It was Death by Thrusters that scared me. I went and looked through my blogs and didn’t find that we had done this workout previously. I was sure we had but at this time I came up with nothing. So coach thought 65lbs was a doable weight for all the females and it was just fine. It’s been a while since I have done Thrusters with a bar because of dumb shoulder pain. The pain was still there but I was determined to overlook it. After a few rounds I didn’t feel it much. It was my wrists that caved in early! I was in pain. Only made it through 8 rounds. I think I could have at least made it through 9 had my wrists not been dying. I couldn’t fight through that pain at all. 8 rounds, not so bad I suppose.

1/21/13 WOD
Strength/Skill: 3 x 3 Back Squat at 90% of 1RM
Whew that gets heavy fast! My warm up weights were good, I was getting good depth and popping right back up. Put on 130lbs and that slowed me down a bit. I surprisingly made it through the 3 sets. It’s only 3 right? But it was a struggle.

1/21/13 WOD

MetCon: CINDY
Ah Cindy, I do not like you. I’ve told you this before. My feelings have not changed. Something as simple as Pull Ups, Push Ups and Air Squats can be soooo evil! Especially when it’s a 20 minute AMRAP. Cindy I know I’ve done. I have one blogged record and although it was a lower score at 6 rounds 4 rep, I was only using one green band. Today I was using one green and one blue band. I suck so bad at Pull Ups. I managed to get through 10 rounds 3 reps. I’m a baby. Cindy is Mean. The End.

Whole30 Days 17-20
I wasn’t very good at taking pictures this weekend of all my foods, but to be honest it was a lot of the same. Protein (ground beef), sauteed up with spinach and sweet potatoes. I would change it up with some cauliflower or broccoli but nothing EXCITING. I was in Clean house mode so I just needed fuel. And fuel is what I made.

1/18/13 Lunch – Ground beef, Sauteed Broccoli, Roasted Cauliflower, 1/2 Avocado and a Kiwi

We are on our last package of Pork Belly and our handy dandy butcher hasn’t had any since we last stocked up 😦 So I ordered some Sugar-Free Bacon from US Wellness Meats. It should arrive today. I’m rather excited.

Mood: Again, besides mother nature barging in and making me feel bleh. I still feel pretty good, full of energy and no lulls in the day. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post though, I was mental. I wanted bad stuff. Mostly for the sake of convenience I think but also because it sounded a little bit good. Not good enough to throw Whole30 down the drain but it did surprise me to have that desire. I’ve been so good and so on point with no cravings and now more than halfway through my brain says GIVE ME GIVE ME GIVE ME! Seriously? UGH. I’ve read in ISWF about that happening, but not to me! Right? Oh but it did!

Ten days to go! Have a week’s worth of veggies and grass fed meats to get me through. I also remember to snap a picture of the Pasta Sauce I use, Organic and NO SUGAR added = PERFECT. So many pasta sauces have some sort of sugar or odd chemical. This brand happily does not.

Hopefully I get over this mental battle and just power through. And hopefully I don’t waste food. It seems that towards the end of the week, I was becoming a little forgetful and left food out instead of putting it away. That’s a fast way to throw money in the trash!

Hope everyone has a great day. It’s Monday Funday? NO it’s just MONDAY! Take care of your mind and body! and BE AWESOME!

FRIDAY – I welcome you!

At last it’s Friday. And looking to be a beautiful weekend – keeping fingers crossed. You never know in Texas! Been plowing away at Whole30 like a champ. And needed that day o’ rest! Nobody jumped at my sponsorship request so I guess I just gotta barrel through. I’m really wishing the warm weather would reappear. Thirty degree mornings are wearing me down!

1/18/13 WOD
Like I said, it’s cold and I’m over it. And today’s workout involved rings and the bar for Toes To Bar! UGH. And I’ve done ZERO practice in regards to pull ups so I’m just a glutton for punishment.

Skill/Strength: 3 rounds of Max Ring Dips
I busted out my handy dandy green band and although I feel strong doing this movement with the green band if I use anything less I have nothing. There’s not in between. Plus my rotator cuff, inside of my shoulders hurt like a mofo! I managed to do 10, 6, 10 for my 3 attempts.

1/18/13 WOD

MetCon: 21, 15, 9 of TTB and a 200m run after each set.
Where o where did my Toes To Bar go, o where o where did they go? POOF, At one point I could string a few together now I can’t even touch the bar with my feet! WTH? I’m getting worse, not better. This is not good. Knees to elbows here we come AGAIN! And it sucked cause I’ve lost any semblance of a kip as well. Argh. So needless to say this was not my best WOD. Stumbled through and got a final time of 8:43. Boooo

Whole30 Days 15-17
I left you on a good note for this Whole30 journey and still on it. This whole Mother Nature BS has finally got my mood dragging. But other than that, had a magical wake up on time moment. That’s hard to do when your wake up time is 4:20!

My food has either been chicken soup or ground beef hash/mixup with whatever veggies I have lying around. The kids and Ernie have been on quick to go food mode, mostly due to baseball practice and well cruelness to me! Jokes, Jokes, like I said the whole mother nature thing was dragging me down and I had no motivation to really cook. Although I did bake Spaghetti Squash and Acorn Squash to have as readily available cooked veggies.

1/17/13 Lunch – Chicken Soup with Kale, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes and Chicken. See my ramekin full of coconut flakes!

1/17/13 Dinner – Leftover ground beef with leftover cabbage and added some spinach. That avocado was heavenly!

In other Whole30 news, I had run out of GHEE, gasp, and went to a Sprouts nearby work to see if they had any. Well they had clarified butter but not from grass fed cows, so I took a pass but I did find Coconut Flakes, note not a big fan of coconut! Turns out I liked the flakes, maybe my taste/flavor profiles are changing! Score for me. A new heatlhy fat to add to my arsenal! And I found Avocado oil, cold pressed! I’ve read to use Avocado oil for Paleo Mayo – Super stoked!! And by the end of the day Ernie and kids went to Whole Foods to get me some Ghee! It was a WIN overall!

WOOHOOO!

I also made more bone broth. I distributed it in several containers and let it sit to cool before I threw it in freezer. WELLLLL, I woke up this morning to see said containers still sitting out to cool. EEEK! They were loosely covered, but not sealed tight. I threw them in freezer cause I had to get to the Box but was this wise? Should I have dumped it? Is it safe? I’m thinking it should be fine. I did google it and I found people on both sides of the fence. So I’m going with keeping it and praying I don’t have ill effects from a future soup!

I have chicken thighs defrosting for tonight/tomorrow. Gotta get my mojo back for cooking! Other than that, I’m just peachy. I’ve been strong. More than halfway there and I got this.

Have a super duper weekend. Do something fun! Be awesome!

Holy SNIKES, It’s ThunderSnow!

And in Texas we don’t just get one or the other in the form of elements falling from the sky. Nope we get SLEET, RAIN, THUNDER, SNOW. ThunderSnow is what they were calling it on the radio and I like it! And it was mucho frio (cold) this morning at the BOOM Box. It was still above 40° in the box but soooo much colder feeling knowing pellets of ice are falling from the sky. And I’m pretty sure the bars are much heavier when it’s cold right? Can I get someone to confirm that? Thanks!

Skill/Strength: Snatch/OHS
We went through all the PVC warm ups and all the Bar warmups and then worked on Snatch technique because it was in the MetCon for the day. I did a handful that I felt were right. The rest of them just felt weird. I started off with gloves because the BAR is COLD! But that’s not natural feeling so I threw those off, taped up my thumbs and felt a little more confident that way. Eh I gotta do this no matter what so just deal with it.

1/15/13 WOD

MetCon: 12 minute AMRAP of 10 HSPU OR 30 HR Push Ups and 5 Power Snatches (65lbs)
Well, Well, Well, I was not expecting a X3 modification. 30 Push Ups in lieu of Handstand Push Ups. That took up plenty of time as my shoulders fatigue fast. I was looking at the clock but it wasn’t registering in my brain. When I finished my first 30 I just expected to SNATCH that bar but I failed like 3 times before I got it up. So drained. I fought through the best I could but I ended up muscling up the weight up more than anything. I felt that my hands were not cooperating with me and I just might let go of the bar or something. Silly I know. I’m not willing to just let the bar go, but my grip was not confident. I finished 4 rounds and got 1 lonely Push Up in.

Whole30 Days 13 & 14
I finally purchased Sunflower Butter and have been eating it sparingly to use as a fat with my meals. For lunch I just dipped a carrot in it and it was pretty delicious. Got home for dinner and went into prep mode. Cooked up some Steak, Sweet Potato Chips and Asparagus. All the while I did more Cauli-Rice experimenting. Trying a creamy mushroom idea. Cooked it, did not taste it but brought it for lunch so we’ll see! Crossing fingers it’s good cause it’s a good portion of my lunch!

1/14/13 Lunch: Roast Chicken, Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes and Carrot with Sunflower Butter

1/14/13 Dinner: 12oz Steak of which I only ate half, Sweet Potato Chips (cooked in Ghee) and Asparagus with Olive Oil Drizzle

Mood: I woke up without alarm and felt great! But sadly I forced myself back to sleep for 15 minutes! I know I know, I shouldn’t do that but mentally I felt I needed that sleep but my body knows better. Argh. I’ll get better I promise. Except losing the motivation to prep and prepare food constantly I’m still riding the Happy Train. I can’t say this crappy weather doesn’t deter my feeling great, cause it does but I know physically I feel good.

After watching just a little bit of Biggest Loser, I wanted to throw It Starts With Food at every contestant and to the NUTRITIONIST lady as well. I’m almost finished with the book, HOORAY. Again I’m glad they are starting somewhere in regards to finding good health and fitness, but if I took a shot everytime she said eat healthy WHOLE grains, I would of been drunk off my ass. Now I haven’t had alcohol in almost 2 years now, so I wouldn’t really be taking shots but HOLY COW I wanted to punch the lady in the face.

That’s it for today! Have a CHILLY Tuesday and I’ll see you tomorrow! Be Awesome!

Womp Womp!

Argh, this morning my stomach was not feeling settled and I chose not to go to the BOOM Box. In the end I felt fine a couple of hours later and now I sit here wishing I had been able to go. Ah well, it is what it is. I still have Saturday’s workout to recap and of course I will break down my Whole30 weekend. Still going strong and my book came in – It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig (founders of Whole30). I’m about halfway through and if this book can’t convict you to change how you eat then you just don’t care about much at all including yourself. Harsh? YES. I know it is but they really make all the “science-y” stuff make sense to those of us who aren’t well read in how our body functions.

1/12/13 WOD
Let me get to Saturday’s workout before I forget all that we did! It was actually humid and not so cold and we did our MetCon outside. I wish today was humid and semi-warm but it’s not!
MetCon: 10 minute AMRAP of 1 minute of Air Squats and Straight and 1 minute of Straight Legged Sit Ups.
Of course it doesn’t sound horrible but give it a whirl trying to get as many reps as possible and your legs will be all jelly-like! And I promise my ABS are still sore today. I started off strong and really slowed down midway. Bad idea. I tried to pick it back up for the last minute but not good enough. Total reps: 261

Skill/Strength: Open Skill Session
Work on your weaknesses is what I say! So I worked on Snatch. It’s been a while since I’ve really done any Snatch work so it was back to the basics for me. I didn’t try to put any weight on the bar, just work on technique.

Whole30 Days 10-13
As I mentioned last week Day 10 lunch was comprised of leftovers and I also finished the day with a dinner of leftovers. I didn’t feel like making anything fresh which was fine by me because I was tired due to my lack of sleep from the night before.

1/11/13 Lunch (notice my book!)

Day 11
Of course, NO PRE-WORKOUT meal. And I hung around the BOOM Box for too long after to make any use of a Post Workout Meal, well at least in my opinion. I know BAD FORM but I made sure my breakfast was legit and full of all the things I needed. Besides heating up some spinach with my Shredded Pork it was more leftovers. I have plenty! Egg Muffins by the way are great reheated! I’m getting rather boring with the leftovers, but I make sure it’s a little bit of everything.

For dinner I remembered I had some bone broth in the fridge that must be utilized so I took some chicken leftovers, cut up some sweet potato, carrots, kale, mushrooms and scallions. Tossed it all in a pot and let it boil then simmer until sweet potatoes and carrots were soft. Now let me tell you, I eat Kale, and I try to find crafty ways to cook it but it’s still not my FAVE veggie. I know it’s packed full of goodness but it’s on the lower end of veggies I will CHOOSE to eat. In soup however Kale is less intrusive on my taste buds and definitely easier to eat. With that said, I’m still trying to integrate Kale into my life more often. The soup was delicious and I wish I had made more but really it was enough. I was plenty satiated when it was all said and done.

1/12/13 Dinner – Chicken soup deliciousness

Day 12
We were in a hurry to get out of the house since we slept in longer than we should have. I had more Egg Muffins with some veggies and reheated chicken. Scooped it down and we were on the road. For those of you new to the blog, we travel about 35 miles south of where we live every Sunday and pick up our grassfed beef, pastured chicken, pastured pork and pastured chicken eggs. We could make one trip a month or two times a month but it’s fun and we’ve become friends with the folks that work there. So it’s a field trip to a great little place called Burgandy Pasture Beef. Every now and then we also eat lunch there. They only serve Burgers and Frankfurters but they are delicious, and we eat ours bunless!

Sneaky Ernie taking pictures of me looking over some asparagus. Ended up being a colorful shot so I thought I’d share it!

After we finished our shopping for the day, we headed over to my dad’s house. He had leftover pancake breakfast foods to share and well I couldn’t partake but I brought the last of my pulled pork, kale and broccoli and a few macadamia nuts, Whole30 says these are the best nuts to eat, good cause they are my faves! I also made more Egg Muffins, Kale included, to share with my dad. Hopefully he likes them. I have to get him on track to a healthier life so he can stick with us a little longer! It’s a hard task though. For dinner, I used up the last of my spaghetti squash I had saved in the fridge. Added some kale, poured pasta/meat sauce and dinner is served. I also had a kiwi to go along with it. I think I’ve done GOOD in the eat more kale department! While I was heating up my dinner I was also prepping today’s breakfast/lunch. By now I’m tired of prepping. Yup, it’s gotten old and I wish I had someone to do it for me. I know I can’t let it bring me down but as of last night I just was blah about it all. Ernie jumped in to help while I ate my dinner. He was a little worried at his slicing and dicing skills. NO they weren’t the way I would have done it but I was relieved to have a small load taken off my shoulders. Thank you kind sir!

Day 13
Whew, I’ve made it this far and I’ve done well, in my opinion at least. I made some broccoli to go with the chicken I roasted last night and the sweet potatoes I also cooked up. I had some of the sweet potatoes this morning with a hardboiled egg and some pork belly. I wasn’t really all that hungry due to my stomach being all weird but I ate anyways. Gotta keep the food habits in place. As always the day of, I’m not sure what dinner will be but I know it will be good. I may make more chicken soup. I think the kids will enjoy it as much as I did. I also gotta get some beef bone broth going. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, we’ll see!

MOODI’m pretty sure feeling great is here to stay. I would typically take a nap on a Sunday but yesterday I was not tired. Only the boredom of monotony got me last night, but that’s a mental thing. A lazy thing. Other than my stomach feeling woosy this morning, which could be attributed to a number of things I suppose, I feel spectacular. And guess what?

My fat girl pants that were borderline snug are dramatically loose again. It takes time folks. And you must find patience. All in a matter of 13 days. It’s amazeballs!

It Starts With Food
I’m only halfway through the book so I’m not going to review it now, and I’m not really sure how well I can review a book. I’m wordy but the book is so good so far, I’m afraid a review from me won’t do it justice. As soon as I’m finished with it, I’ll think it over again. I do highly recommend it though. The Hartwigs do a great job in breaking it all down, giving you food for thought and have nice testimonials from folks that have been really “sick” and have either eliminated their sicknesses or on the way to eliminating them! Reading the book also gives me great backup to not screw this Whole30 up.

Now I know why I could eat a whole bag of OREOS! It Starts With Food, Dallas and Melissa Hartwig

And holy guacamole it’s Monday again! Hope you all make the best of it! Remember last week I encouraged you to make a change, even it if it was a baby change? How are y’all doing? Did you ditch the chemically flavored beverages? Cut out sugar? Make a vow to eat breakfast finally? If not, let’s try it again! Make one small change. It doesn’t even have to be food related. Spend 10 minutes in scripture, meditation, whatever, just do something new. Try and make it a habit. Do something for you! And of course be AWESOME at it.

Hard Yolks, Runny Yolks, METAL YOKES?

I definitely did not get enough sleep last night. Stayed up too late and had a hard time waking my sleepy head up. Alas, I did wake up and hauled my butt to the BOOM Box. I better get to bed soon tonight because I have my 5th WOD for the week in the A.M. This is my first full week at the new scheduling. It’s not that I have never shown up more than 4 times a week. But typically the 5th day would be a community work out and more group/fun based. I’m not saying we didn’t put in work but it was a different atmosphere. Granted I won’t be able to tell much after one week, but I can at least gauge how I feel as the weeks build upon each other.

Skill/Strength: 2RM Press
My shoulders have been plaguing me. Mostly I believe because I sleep on my sides and I don’t do enough mobility. So this morning I really had to stretch out and warm up for any part of my shoulders to feel good. As I warmed up I was feeling good at 65lbs. Did 2 reps no problem. 70lbs is my 1RM and I’ve been stuck here for quite some time. Today I made a tiny dent by getting 2 reps at 70lbs. In my excitement I jumped up a WHOPPING 5lbs and it was a fail! I should just be happy I had more than 1 rep at 70lbs! I guess

1/11/13 WOD

MetCon: 4 rounds of MAX YOKE CARRY for 20 seconds, MAX PUSH UPS for 20 seconds
I’ve been calling the YOKE that EVIL SLED, EVIL PROWLER, but in the end it’s a YOKE. A 185lb one at that! The ladies were supposed to put 25lb plates on each corner for this MetCon. I however dropped to 10lb plates. The reasoning behind this is that I picked up the yoke and it was way low to ground and I did not feel confident. So 10lb plates it is. And I also had the bar lowered to get a little more air between the ground. After the bar was lowered I realized it was a little easier and 25lb plates would have been feasible, but this was after I started. No time to change it now A little disappointed knowing I would have been fine at a higher weight. Ah well. 20 seconds doesn’t seem like a lot but it does add up. I did fine until the 3rd round. I think my core had had enough between Push Ups and carrying the Yoke. I dragged on Push Ups which wasn’t good at all. I ended up carrying the Yoke 96yds and completing 32 Push Ups. It was mentioned we will do something similar soon so mentally I will be ready!

Whole30 Days 9 & 10 (1/3 of the way there!)

Pulled Pork ended up being FABULOUS. My lunch yesterday made me a happy camper! For dinner I went with my old fallback of Spaghetti Squash and Pasta Sauce with GrassFed Ground Beef! This time around, since my squash had been sitting in fridge, I sauteed the squash in GHEE with some garlic and shallots. This was very nice flavor profile when combined with the meat sauce. Added some roasted broccoli to the mix and dinner is served! I did end up eating some fruit after all, 6 cherries.

1/10/13 Lunch of Pulled Pork, Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli, Asparagus and Avocado

Day 10, 20 to goSmooth sailing from here I hope. It’s hasn’t been all that bad in the first place as long as I’m prepped. And since I don’t want to fail I have made sure I have defrosted protein and at least one veggie that is easy to cook. This morning I didn’t feel like I exerted my self the same as earlier in the week so I only had one Hardboiled Egg with some Sweet Potatoes for my Post Workout Meal. For breakfast I had some Pork Belly, Kale Chips, TBS of Sunbutter, and I heated up some more Sweet Potato and an Egg Muffin. This is all very easy to eat on my commute to work. Whew. Lunch will be more leftovers of Steak, Broccoli and Cauli Rice.

1/10/13 Dinner of Spaghetti Squash, Roasted Broccoli, Pasta/Meat Sauce, and Avocado

Dinner is TBD as it typically is, I have some Pulled Pork left as well as Pasta/Meat Sauce and plenty of veggies so that will probably be the plan. Like I have previously mentioned, it does get old and routine. I don’t have time to hit up the grocery store daily and my meals tend to have that Wash, Rinse, Repeat rhythm but at least it all tastes good and I’m hitting the mark.

Mood: Overall my BRAIN is clear, my EYES are bright, and I’m just in a good place. Today I’m dragging a lil bit but I know that’s due to not enough sleep.

Have a fabulous weekend. Hopefully there won’t be torture waiting for me at the BOOM Box tomorrow morning!! Other than that Be AWESOME and all that Jazz.

idrankthecfkoolaid

and it's good

paleo

Sleep WOD – I WIN!

FUN Fun FuN

Home Stretch

Pressing On

yawn!

Mental, Mental, Mental

FRIDAY – I welcome you!

Holy SNIKES, It’s ThunderSnow!

Womp Womp!

Hard Yolks, Runny Yolks, METAL YOKES?

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