paleo

HOPE is NOT GIVING UP!

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

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

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

WOD

5/4/12 WOD

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

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

 

Sugar Detox Update

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

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

Food Friday – Paleo-liscious Brownies!

GLUTEN FREE EASY TO BAKE GOODNESS!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve tried a new recipe but I finally made some brownies that I found on Elana’s Pantry and I HEART THEM! As do the kids and some co-workers. Well I don’t know if the co-workers LOVE them but I’ve heard they do like them. The kids were like oooh you can definitely send these for school treats 🙂

I don’t have preparation pics because I was doing a gazillion other things and forgot! But it’s not a lot of steps and it takes very few ingredients. http://www.elanaspantry.com/brownies/

  1. In a large bowl, blend almond butter until smooth with a hand blender
  2. Blend in eggs, then blend in agave and vanilla
  3. Blend in cacao, salt and baking soda, then fold in chocolate chips
  4. Grease a 9×13 inch Pyrex baking dish
  5. Pour batter into dish
  6. Bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes

Makes about 24 brownies

It was a good treat for sure and I’m thinking I’ll make more this weekend and maybe share with the BOOM Box Beasts. Everyone loves treats 🙂 I have two WOD wrap-ups for y’all and they were not fun at all!

Yesterdays WOD didn’t seem to intimidating. I didn’t doubt it would be HARD but I surely didn’t expect it to nearly KILL ME! The skill/strength was 3 rounds of MAX REP KETTLEBELL PRESS! I’m a wuss I know this so bare with me. The KB’s bruise my forearms, bruise my deltoids and are awkward to hold! I managed to get 17 reps my first round on each arm at 25lbs and then 15 reps for a second round. I moved up to the 1 POOD KB for the last round and got 13 reps each arm. I should have moved up on the 2nd round but I was slightly SCARED of the 1 POOD (Russian for about 35lbs).

4/12/12 WOD OF DEATH!

Next was KB swings and Wall Walks. 10-1, so 10 KB swings, 10 Wall Walks, 9 KB Swings, 9 Wall Walks, etc. I did fairly well with the KB swings being 1 POOD swings. And the wall walks, although they look easy, they quickly tax your shoulders and for me personally brought on DIZZINESS fast! Not to mention my core is about as sore as ever. It hurts to take deep breaths. :/ Coach set a standard of getting your nose to the wall and to come down with restraint and not flailing around. I managed to get my nose to the wall each time and keep control but it was not easy. There was a 20 minute cap and I only managed to work my way down to 4 KB swings. With 20 seconds left there was no way I was getting 4 wall walks. It was disappointing and I was dying but I never thought it would hurt so bad! Hahaha. I lived and when I meet those beasts again, I’ll cry! Jokes, sorta. Hopefully I’ll be better at them!

Not our Box but as you can see you gotta get vertical on the wall AND touch your nose to the wall! WoOOOWEeeEEE! It's not easy!

Today’s happy day o’ fun was Skill/Strength: Dead Lifts, 3, 3, 3+1. Coach has been making us do math in the mornings. I don’t know if for punishment or his own amusement but I had to take 95% of my Max add 20lbs then take 80%, 85% and 90% of that. This results in what weight I should do each round of lifts. This equaled to 155lbs, 165lbs and 175lbs. I managed to bust out 8 reps on my last go. Not bad! At least to me not bad 🙂

4/13/12 WOD

The MetCon was a joy all in itself: RUN 800m, do 40 burpees (don’t die), RUN 400m, do 20 burpees (don’t puke) and RUN 200m, do 10 burpees (pray for survival). I totally killed this 800m RUN compared to Tuesdays run by a whole 3 seconds! LOL. It’s true. Then the 40 burpees came. I did 20 fairly well. I just paced them out nicely but the last 20 sucked. I didn’t stop, just didn’t go fast enough I suppose. Who knows. I couldn’t get a good deep breath to save my life! The 400 had to of been slow. I stopped looking at the clock. The set of 20 burpees was much better than the 40 but I was spent from the running. Fortunately by the time you get to the 200m run you know it’s almost done. I couldn’t breathe very well at all this morning but I was real happy to finish the last round of 10 burpees! Time: 13:42. I’m dead for the weekend. My body hates me!So hopefully I’ll get some nice recovery. Another weekend full of baseball for us with a forecast of rain 😦 Lets hope it waits till Sunday!

Have a FABULOUS FRIDAY the 13th! Make some brownies, they are good!

 

Holy Tornadoes Batman! And other stuff!

So I know I’ve been Slack Action Jackson as of late and I’m sorry. Life has consumed me and I’ve neglected my blogging. Please still love me, Please! Heheheh. K or don’t. It’s fine by me.

Let me first tell you, North Texas got hit pretty hard with some crazy weather … tornadoes, hail, and rain – oh my! All jokes aside, I can report from my end that we are all safe and I pray that all those affected will come out of this craziness just fine. My home was narrowly missed as were the kid’s schools, thank GOD! I don’t know what I’d do without my family!!! There was so much damage in my neck of the woods. It makes my heart sad for all those that have to deal with this tragedy. Fortunately there were not any fatalities.

So now that my unofficial news reporting is over I just have a little rant for y’all and then I’ll kinda sorta recap the past several days of the BOOM BOX.

Listen up y’all – This is not a new rant, just extended from previous ones …. QUIT saying you need to start working out or eating healthy and then just go right on and eat junk and not move at all!

Seriously?!? WTH is wrong in your noggin? Does it feel good to SAY that you need to get on top of it? Does it really? Do you feel better after you say that then eat a double cheeseburger or a lean cuisine and soda (maybe even diet soda). I see and hear it everyday. It’s not good, I want to help you all, but I know I can’t. It has to come from within you. NO matter how bad I want good health for folks I can’t make you do it. I’m not perfect. I had my junkfilled haze just recently and it took a few days to get back on the straight and narrow.

But I will tell you, just that little bit of insanity from my end ruined my world. Ruined my stomach, ruined my head, ruined my overall self. I’m still recovering. It’s not good folks. I can’t imagine feeling like that day in and day out. I know I was like that a year ago and I seriously can’t recall feeling physically out of wack but I’m sure I did and I just didn’t realize it was a direct result of my everyday food intake. CRAP! mixed with healthy stuff but in general CRAP none the less! So please if y’all really want to do something then DO IT! Just give it a go for 30 days, then plan yourself a cheat day. But at least give it a go for more than 7 days before you treat yourself. Yes some of you may go bonkers without a “cheat” day but don’t try and convince yourself 2 days in that you need that office cookie or that handful of M&M’s. It’s not helping you at all! And get moving, even if it’s walking up and down your street. You don’t have to be a die hard worker outer bee. You need to eat right, eat clean…. that’s 80% of it folks. Not 10% or 20%. Nutrition is 80%!!!!! Thanks for listening. And sorry for the ramble. I just see it day in and day out and it just infuriates me. I want to shake people sometimes … but I can’t without fear of getting smacked or yelled at, hehehe!

ANYWAYS!!! So the last time I shared my WODs with you was Tuesday last week!!! Wow I am a slacker 😀

So here goes my wrap up. It will be short and sweet I hope.

3/29/2012

Skill/Strength – Band Dead Lifts 12 sets of 3. I can’t recall the weight but it was fairly light maybe 75lbs. Not 100% sure. But what you do is drape a mobility band over the top of the bar and let it rest on the ground. You then step on the band to add resistance and knock out 3 reps quicklike.

It took a couple of sets before I felt somewhat comfortable doing them. It is definitely a unique feeling and takes some core strength to stabilize yourself. After the 12 sets, we did one set without the bands. HOLY MOLY it was sooo weird and you feel crazy strong and really feel like you execute the lift properly no questions asked.

MetCon – Yes COACH brought up Toes to Bar. Even though he knows we had enough from the Open, he still had to bust those bad boys out. Well I could only manage to get 3 TTB in so I switched to Knees to Elbows for a workout instead of just struggling. All week had been upper body and I think this day I was just tired. I only managed to get 4 full rounds in and almost got 5 round completed. I know I worked, I just hate that bar! On a side note, Box Jumps at 20″ felt really nice. I finally feel like I have some spring in my legs, NOT MUCH mind you, but some 🙂

3/30/2012

Skill/Strength – Back Squat Deload. This is something I like to see. We aren’t trying to go for max weight here or crazy progressions. We are putting in work but it’s a nice “rest” if you will.

MetCon – TEAM WOD. Sometimes I dread these and sometimes I enjoy them. This was one that I was happy to share the workload. We had the option of doing 5 Muscle UPs (hhahahha), 15 Chest to Bar (hahahahhahah) or 30 Chin Ups. Well our team consisted of 3 of us who can not do pullups at all. So we used bands to help us and had no choice but to pick chin ups. After Chin Ups we could do 5 Handstand PushUps (hahahah), 15 Box HSPU OR 30 Hand Release Pushups. Well one of team mates had neck issues that prevented her to do the BOX HSPUs so we went with the 30 pushups. And we finish off the round with 90 Air Squats. So us ladies just split the load up evenly and we finished in 16:43! Go US! It was fun and a beating all at the same time.

4/2/2012

Skill/Strength – Snatch Practice. It’s always good to practice SNATCH! It’s just such a complicated movement. We only worked with PVC and the bar. We did not add any weight but just going through the motions and working up to a full snatch is work.

MetCon – RUNNING! UGH! I almost stayed in bed after I checked the website. I despise running and this was designed to “sprint” the distances. I mean I can’t SPRINT 800m, but it’s the idea of pushing hard right? Our distance is unofficial so don’t think I’m super BEAST for getting a time of 2:32. The :24 was for the “200”, which was probably less. I think I can sprint a 100 yds in 17/18 seconds so ya. There ya have it. We rested 1 minute after each run. I hate running!

4/3/2012

Skill Strength – Deadlifts 5, 5, 5+ We had to do math and it’s hard to do at 5am. I can’t recall our weights, but I don know on my last round I just went 5. I didn’t mean to put the bar down, I just wasn’t using my brain. I had at least 2 more in me. So we’ll just go with I would have done 7 reps on my last round! Sound good? OK GREAT!

MetCon – 5 rounds of 30 sec plank, 1:00 of Thrusters and 1:00 rest. The idea was to match your max thruster count each round. Add up your rounds and voila that’s your score for the day. I managed a 10, 10, 11, 8, and 10 giving me a total of 49 @ 65lbs. Thrusters are not easy. I seriously pushed my butt off. I know I did what appeared to be a lot of standing around but I just was so out of breath and believe me .. just out of it. I don’t think I could have done more in a minute. I did know I had to push but when my push was out I dropped the bar. It’s hard to WANT to get it back up. It’s hard to breathe too! I feel I finished strong. Good MetCon!

And that’s a wrap for the WODs. I’ll close with some food shots.

If you want a quick meal that  you can partially prep over the weekend then try some sweet potato hash. I just shred up 2-3 sweet potatoes and put them in a storage container and keep in fridge. Each morning I take a handful of my shredded yumminess and saute it in one teaspoon of coconut oil. Top it with 2 fried eggs. I might add some bacon or fruit. Easy breezy and delicious!

Sweet Potato Hash topped with Fried Eggs!

And this was my lunch today. Sauteed shredded zucchini with meat sauce, 3 oz of steak and some steamed broccoli. It was  great filling lunch 🙂

Steak, Broccoli and Shredded Zucchinni topped with meat sauce 🙂

Happy Hump Day Folks! Make it great!

WTH was I thinking? PiZza?!?!?!

I will begin with my Paleo FAIL-EO first then bounce all around from that point! It all began Saturday after the Boom Beasts finished the 12.5 WOD. We all go to Texas Roadhouse for a celebratory CrossFit Games Open IS OVER lunch. I know Ernie and Coach are going to partake in badness and I truly thought I would hold strong.

That lasted 2 minutes maybe 3 minutes. As soon as HOT ROLLS hit the table I was out for the count. Kudos to Jess and Annette for holding strong! But that wasn’t the end of my indulgences. I went on to have pizza at BJs Brewhouse later that day.

And even later had chips and ranch dip as well… and er uhmmm cookies! I was indeed trying to put myself into a food induced coma. It was bad, all sorts of bad and it all left me with an upset stomach and took me out cold. It was like passing out from drinking too much. And let me tell you alcohol did cross our mind but we held back. Over a year of no booze, we didn’t cross that line! Besides having a stomach ache, I was extra bloated and heavy feeling even up till today. It’s not worth it people. I don’t know why I even tried. I thought I learned my lesson on Christmas, apparently I did not. Was it good? Ya it was good. Was it GREAT? Not really. Do I regret? At first I didn’t but today I really do. But I feel better getting it out there. It’s done, It’s over and it’s time to eat clean and start over!

Now that confession time is over I want to talk about Hunger Games. After days of deciding if I should take my 12 year old to the midnight premiere of Hunger Games I finally bit the bullet and bought the tickets. We arrived at 9pm to an already seated theater with all the good seat disappearing. Good thing we got there at 9 (thanks Ernie). I had planned on going at 10 and we would have had crappy seats. I’m not going to give a movie review because well I’m not a movie critic. I read the books and I thought the movie did the books justice. I’ve read and heard mixed reviews. If anyone thinks a movie can catch all the detail of a book they will surely always be disappointed. There’s not enough time to explain the details the book will have to offer. I thought they did great and I enjoyed every minute of the movie! Go watch it! But first read the books.

With me being an old maid and not getting home till 3am I wasn’t about to pretend to go to my 5 am workout or even go to work. So I took kids to school, came back home, and took a nap. I arranged to get my WOD in at 1pm which was GREAT! I wish I could hit up the box at 1 in the afternoon all the time. I forgot to take a picture of the board because I wasn’t in my normal routine. I just plain ol forgot. We weren’t putting our efforts on the board anyways so maybe that’s why I really forgot! Hehe. It was TABATA of craziness though. So we had to do 4 rounds of burpees. What does that mean? 20 seconds of burpees, 10 sec rest, 20 seconds on, 10 sec rest. Then we moved on to 4 rounds on the AIRDYNE bike. If you’ve never had the privilege of working on this little GEM of equipment let me tell you IT SUCKS! It burns, it hurts, I had not very nice names for the airdyne. And in the 2 minutes I had to endure it I barely burned 31 calories. That was the goal 30 calories in the 2 minutes. It sucked! We then moved onto ROWING… as if my body isn’t dead already. I missed out on the calorie mark we were supposed to hit till after I did my turn. I missed it by 1 calorie! I’ll take it in my extra calorie on the bike. And then it was onto to 4 rounds of DU’s. My first go was 28 and it was downhill from there. My legs had no bounce. So in our little 8 minutes of hell we got a lot of work in. It was good and hell I had the rest of the day off. Can’t really be complaining now can I? 😀

That evening it was baseball time for us. Two kids playing at the same time – Different fields. We had one team lose and the other team win to move on in the tournament. So instead of hitting my Saturday morning workouts I was at the baseball fields. Our first year hodge podge team pulled off a win and they now play in the championship game tomorrow night! WOOOHOOOO, GO CUBS! I have to boast a little bit about Justice as he held his composure Friday night and lasted 4 innings pitching allowing only 2 runs. It was awesomeness. I’m a proud mama for sure!

So with all the busy and all the bad eating that leaves me to today. MONDAY morning WOD at the BOOM BOX! Front Squat 1 RM and 5 rounds of 12 Deadlifts and 6 Front Squats with weight that is 50% of our Front Squat 1 RM. Make sense? I hope so!

3/26/12 WOD

If we’ve done a front squat max then I failed to record it and/or I have forgotten. So we started from scratch. Worked my way up to 135lbs. I failed at 140 and I feel that somewhere inside of me I may have been able to get that weight up I just sat at the bottom instead of exploding up. I didn’t try again as we get pressed for time, maybe with some oly shoes I would have pulled it off! Hehe, who knows. I truly do think I got to 135 due to the fact that I finally ordered STRENGTH WRAPS as suggested by a wonderful CrossFit buddy. Thanks Sally! THESE BAD BOYS are awesome and NOT ONCE did I feel pain in my wrists! I suggest if you have any wrist issues that you get some ASAP! I have yet to test them out with OHS or snatch but just helping in the front squat changed my world. I do really hope that they help in my other lifts. It’s such a simple idea using those wraps and makes a world of difference. LOVE THEM! HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM! www.strengthwraps.com

Onto the MetCon. Using half the weight of our Front Squat seemed fairly doable. I have learned that it will never be easy but 70lbs at DL and front squat is doable, right? The catch was DON’T drop the bar or you owe 3 burpees right then and there. SO now added pressure! ARGH! Dropping the bar between lifts can’t happen, will I survive? WHY YES, YES I WILL! I didn’t drop that bar once! I held onto it even though I badly wanted to let go. By the 5th round noises were coming out of me that would scare babies and the elderly. But I finished, NO BURPEES – Time 5:11! It felt good to not have sore wrists and to finish strongly!

Post MetCon I worked on pull ups and DUs. I’m bound and determined to get that damn pull up! I will get it and I will get it soon.

Happy Happy Monday! Hope you have a great start to your week! And thanks for sticking with me to till the end of this long and random post 🙂

Fun Friday and TREATS!

So I half lied because not all of this morning was a “fun” Friday at the BOOM Box in regards to working out. Today my body was just exhausted and the COLD weather decided to remind us it’s not spring just yet!

3/9/12 WOD

Back Squats and TABATA were on the whiteboard menu today. I was all fine and dandy to take it all on but my damn IT BAND on my left leg which has been pretty quiet and pain free was being WONKY this morning. I blame it on the cold because I haven’t had any problems in a few months. So I couldn’t pull of the weights I need to with Back Squats. I was kind of sad because I know I’ve gotten stronger and today I felt so weak. In the MetCon we had to do jumping lunges and well I could only half ass do those as well. My left knee wasn’t gonna make it to the ground each time. I still worked and TABATAs are always a beating so have no fear, I still got a workout! We did a round of jumping lunges, a round of flutter kicks and the round that counted was DEFICIT Pushups. Both hands are on plates and you go down till your chest hits the ground before you come back up. NO FUN my friends, NO FUN AT ALL. My arms are DEAD from yesterday and now we have to kill them with pushups. I opted out of RX and went to my knees because I’m lame like that. I struggled with those as well 😦 We had to take the lowest amount we completed in the 8 ROUNDs that we completed! Come on NOW. How sucky! My count dropped, and dropped and dropped some more. So after starting out with 13 in 20 seconds, I finished with 8 in 20 seconds. Today was a WEAKSAUCE DAY. Hopefully tomorrow and next week are better 🙂

It's kind of sad looking because 1. I'm no photographer and 2. I'm no frosting professional but it is TASTY!

Now for the FUN part of Friday! Today was Coach’s birthday so I decided to try out a new recipe that I found on Elana’s Pantry website. I test baked and tasted on Wednesday. My first round were a little overcooked. Not bad but not super great. Last nights batches were right on target! These are gluten free and paleo (well if you don’t eat dairy, don’t eat the whipped cream and if you do eat dairy it’s ORGANIC VALLEY so it’s good stuff).

I tripled the recipe for 2 dozen, YUMMO! Coconut Flour, Eggs, Agave, Celtic Sea Salt, Arrowroot Starch, Vanilla, Baking Soda and STRAWBERRIES!

I'm sure if you don't care for strawberries, any berry would do just fine 🙂

Adding the strawberries into the mix.

I'd be happy eating them raw! Hehe, I'm a weirdo, I know.

Voila, Ready to go to the BOOM Box!

The recipe makes 8 cupcakes so I tripled the ingredients to get a whopping 2 dozen to share with the BOOM Box BEASTS! These are kid approved and NON HEALTHY/PALEO eating people approved! One of our 5am guys doesn’t eat anything remotely healthy (or so he claims) enjoyed them so it was great to see that he wanted a dozen for himself! They are tasty and quick to make. The only thing to me was they were more “muffiny” than cupcakey. Which is fine by me. I enjoyed them very much but I just want to be clear so if you make them you can let me know if you felt the same way or if I just plain ol suck at baking them.

You can find the recipe here: http://www.elanaspantry.com/strawberry-cupcakes/

Mine weren’t as BEAUTIFUL as hers are on her site but ah well. I’m a work in progress!

I also made (as suggested) Whipped Cream Frosting. I’m not much of a baker so I have never made my own whipped cream. AND I WISH I HAD KNOWN/LEARNED SOONER on how easy it is to make! To frost 8 cupcakes all you need is 2 TBS of Agave Nectar and 1/2 Cup of Heavy Whipping Cream! I used Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream. I’m new to this so to me it was amazing how simple and easy it is to make. You put it in a deep bowl and get a hand mixer and mix away until you get whipped cream. Voila! Done SON! I was quite happy. My kids noted it wasn’t necessary to add whip cream to the cupcakes, they were good as is. I was really surprised. They did like the whipped cream but that’s how great they are, they don’t need the added sweetness 🙂

Anyhow. Hope your Friday turns out to be fun! Even if you have to do something crazy and obnoxious to make someone smile. Make someone else’s day fun too and yours is bound to be super FUN! I know enough with the word FUN! Have a great weekend folks!

ROCKIN IT OUT 1 YEAR LATER!

I’ve only been blogging for a couple of months but I’ve been on my fitness and good health journey for a year now! It was this week ONE YEAR ago that AJ Tucker from iChooseFit bootcamps called me up and told me I had no more excuses! There was a location practically in my backyard and it was my time to get moving.

iChooseFit

That phone call couldn’t have come at a better time. I had lost my mother a few weeks before that phone call. I was a hot mess of overeating and drinking a few too many alcoholic beverages. I was a round butterball standing at 5’2″ tall and about 160lbs. I know I wasn’t 250lbs but I was on my way there. I’ve had my roller coaster with eating right and getting fit since I had my first child almost 13 years ago. But I was in a bad spot getting worse at this point in my life. I was supposed to start Feb 7th but there was a ton of ice that week and I had other “excuses” pop up. It was actually Feb 14th that I started working out but it was this week a year ago I prepared myself to kick my own ass!

A year ago! Look at those chubby cheeks!

I’ll be honest the first two weeks of bootcamp were tough but I was still coming home and eating too much and having the occasional cocktail. After that first two weeks I had not lost a pound (even gained a pound if I remember correctly) and I was furious with myself. Why put in all the hard work at 5:30 am and NO RESULTS. I knew I had to change it ALL up at once. Jump in the DEEP END of the pool and get to work. And so I did. iChooseFit wasn’t only about getting your butt beat down it was about nutrition. There was a FoodCamp program included and I got all the info I could and I got to work. I got serious. I went shopping for good stuff, jumped in with Advocare and got my head on right and my tail into gear. In the first week of the program “shakedown” I lost 7lbs! HOLY SHIT! Are you kidding me? Who is this girl? I didn’t know her but I was already liking her. I’ll never forget I could barely do a pushup without falling to my knees and after that week I had lost 7lbs I was doing KNEE PUSH UPs. AJ was going on with some cadence about how you grew so it’s up to you to move it, in regards to weight. Then all of a sudden I hear “Stephanie, Get OFF your knees!” It was all nice and sweet in the cadence but it was serious. I surely thought that couldn’t be me he’s referring to (there’s at least 5 Stephanie’s enrolled) and sure enough he was talking about THIS STEPHANIE… he says you’re 7 lbs lighter get off your knees and do regular pushups and SO I DID and from there on out I did regular pushups to the point where I HAD to drop to my knees.

I never stopped pushing myself from that point! In 3 months I lost 20lbs! I was stoked! And maybe I was a little too stoked! I started eating a little more, indulging a little more and even though I was working out like a crazy person I started to feel like poo again. I would gain some lose some, gain some more, lose some more but just hovering. I had got myself into a funk of sorts. I needed another kick in the butt and I just wasn’t able to do it myself.

This was about the time I started CrossFit in August. CrossFit Boom to be more exact. I had met my coach, Grant Coomes, at a CrossFit challenge in Dallas. It was soon after that he opened his box and Ernie signed up. It was only a couple of weeks after that and I was “trying” it out. I was excited for something new and the competitive aspects of it all but I was hesitant because it involved a lot of NEW movements and a lot of learning and I wasn’t sure how competent I would be! I can’t even begin to tell how silly I was in thinking such things. As with anything you train, you learn and you practice. Baby steps! Before I knew it I was doing olympic lifting, slinging around kettlebells and doing “dirty girl” WODs. I even entered my first “competition” (for beginners that is) only 2 months after my start date! I didn’t KILL it but I came in 26th out of 50 women.

2 months in.... FIRST Competition... WODAPALOOZA

I was feeling better than ever, stronger than ever and started dabbling in the PALEO world. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve changed in the past year. And thus my blogging commenced. I should have started a year ago but I knew myself and I was a mess. I would try something for a few weeks then quit. I was a binge worker outer. But a year later I feel confident I am no longer that person. I’m an ATHLETE, in progress still, but an ATHLETE none the less!

I can’t say that I didn’t know this was in me because once upon a time in a land far far away I was a tiny little athletic thing. But I hadn’t been there in such a long time. I’m a different person now for certain with goals and long term thoughts of good health. Back then it was just who I was, a kid, ignorant to what laid ahead of me in life. I can’t say that I’m that much more knowledgeable now, haha,  but I have 3 kids I want to LIVE for and that I want to lay the foundation for them. I want to be around for their kids and be the baddest grandma in town!

So now I’m a good 30lbs lighter. I still fluctuate and probably always will. Right now it’s between 30-35lbs lighter. But I’ve truly learned to not let the scale lead the way. Sure mentally I’d like to lose a few more lbs. I’m only 5’2. And sure I’d like everything to be rockin but the fact and truth is that I’ve had 3 boys and I didn’t take care of myself like I should have but I’m on the right path now. It doesn’t happen overnight. I do know I feel strong. I don’t weigh everyday, not even weekly. I know I’m putting good things in me and I’m taking time to work on my physical self. With that comes confidence that helps me work on my mental and emotional self! It’s a WIN/WIN!

I know this wasn’t a workout update or a food update…. just a personal one to let you know, YOU CAN DO IT TOO! I wasn’t already skinny, getting skinnier. I wasn’t healthy and just dialing in on better health. I was and still am a regular girl, lady, woman….whatever, hahaha, I still call myself a GIRL. Life hits me hard sometimes but I know I can take it on. I have a great family. I have great support systems in both iChooseFit and CrossFit Boom. I’ve met a lot of like minded folks who inspire me. I FEEL GREAT. It’s a good feeling. Find your path. Find buddies. Find HEALTH! Live life. Don’t sit on the sidelines watching it go by. Don’t just WATCH the reality weight loss shows or READ the blogs. DO SOMETHING. MOVE YOUR BUTT! I promise you’ll feel better. You can see on my About Page my befores and afters. I don’t take many pics cause I’m still critical of myself in picture form! I’m working on it. But I did snap a shot of me today.

2/8/12 ME TODAY!

Have a super great Wednesday. Half way through the week. Start NOW, not later. Move NOW not tomorrow. Live TODAY!

Busy Busy and What I Think is a Better Attitude!

ARRGGHHH!!! That’s what I want to do, like in Garden State where they all just yell. I’ve been swamped with work, busy at home, cranking out some freelance work and just going bonkers. I NEED a vacation! STAT! I need Ford Escape Routes to CALL me and Ernie up and say HEY YOU’RE ON! Let’s go… pack your bags. But until that happens I need to play catch up on this ol (errr, still relatively new) blog of mine.

Oh the weekend. I finally slept in till a whopping 8:30 am on Saturday and Sunday! Woooooo! Go ME! And I finally finished The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. Took me longer than I had hoped but I finally finished. For those of you who don’t care I’m sorry. Just doing a recap! Hahah, Get OVER it! We trekked out to Grandview again because our PORK BELLY order was ready and decided it was a good day for a field trip. We picked up some more meats as well. We were saddened that they were out of eggs, but I suppose that will happen. I didn’t take any pictures because frankly when I have 3 boys, Ernie and my Dad I just forget to do anything. We ordered burgers (sans bread) and they were delicious. We had a little fiasco where I thought I lost my debit card but I won’t get into those details. It was a big OL THANK GOODNESS my dad was there to pay for our order! We also made a stop at Rosey Ridge Farm to pick up more milk as well as some butter I ordered at the last minute. The boys had hoped there was a pig on the loose but he was where he belonged. They did however get to see a GINORMOUS turkey! He was big and very curious about us but he kept his distance. I bet he would be a tasty dinner! Again no pictures. I should have taken a picture of that beautiful turkey!

The rest of the weekend was just busy. Nothing else exciting to report :/

2/6/12 WOD

I do believe that I started this week out with the better attitude like I had talked about last week. I Showed up to the box yesterday morning tired as all get out but physically rested nonetheless. Worked the OHS (overhead squat) and hit my 5, 5, and 5+ which ended at 10 reps! Woooo. Granted the weight isn’t amazingly heavy. Worked up to 55lbs. My shoulder flexibility has greatly improved. My only downfall now is the flexibility on the insides of my wrists. The wide grip on the bar combined with the weight really puts a strain on the insides of my wrists. But I did get a little better overall.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the MetCon at first glance. Holding a pullup for 1 minute! YOWSERS! That was not easy. So every time you drop you get a point. The idea is to have the least points. I didn’t do so horrible. Just on the PULLUPS. I didn’t drop once on the pushup hold and I only dropped a few times on the LSits. There was a collective sigh of relief at the end of the last round. It was a painful morning!

Nothing fancy for dinner. Roast chicken, brussel sprouts, and broccoli. I did however take note from my co-worker on what to do with the broccoli stems.

Broccoli Stems Marinating

It’s not entirely PALEO but pretty darn close. So you take your stems and clean them up, Peel them like you would a carrot the get rid of the hard exterior. Chop them up, put them in a bowl, pour a little bit of sesame oil, vinegar, minced garlic, salt and a lil sugar. Toss it all around. Seal it up and put it in fridge. I used Apple Cider Vinegar because that’s what I had to use. This morning we opened it up, I let my 12 yr old try it out and he was very receptive to it. He said it tasted very Asian and it was good! My 9 yr old… eh not so much the same reaction. Ah well! Can’t get them to like everything!

Could have been a little more "RED" Velvet Whoopie Pies

But they were excited to try the Red Velvet Whoopie Pies I found over from the good folks at Health-Bent. They have some pretty awesome recipes kickin over there. Check them out! These sweet treats are Gluten Free but not entirely on the Paleo list of things to eat! If you’ve been following along I’ve been testing out recipes for the kids Valentine’s parties. Although my children appreciated the little snack and gobbled them up like there was no tomorrow, they came to a census that kids at school may not be so excited. They told me “we’re used” to not eating so much sugar, so it’s good to us! LOL, it’s true. If you are a sugar junkie…it may not be as delicious as it is to us. It was a fail for Ernie however. Too dry he says. Like I said, I can’t win everyone over. So 4 out of 5 enjoyed them. That’s pretty good in my eyes. I have one more “treat” to test before I just throw in the towel and make cake pops or something! LOL!

2/7/12 WOD

Finally I’m to this morning. Almost caught up now! Skill Strength consisted of Pistols. Damn YOU PISTOLS! One legged squats are what we call pistols and I do not like them. I have nothing else to say on the matter. Moving on the the MetCon…I wussed out and didn’t do the RX of 1.5 pood. I feel I could have Goblet Squatted fine (at a much slower pace) but I had more trouble just picking that darn Kettlebell up … UPSIDE DOWN. So I went for the lesser weight. 400m run, 20 Goblet Squats, 400m run, 15 Goblet Squats, 400m run, 10 Goblet Squats, 400m run, 5 Goblet Squats = 11:08. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th runs were HARD and I’m a wussbag! Go figure.

There ya have it. Missed a day but all caught up now. It’s Tuesday. Come on FRIDAY where ya at? Come on Ford Escape Routes, Give me a CALL! See ya’ll tomorrow!

Suck It Up ButterCup!

Found this and LOVE it... so if anyone wants to buy it for me, feel free! Hahah!

Yup I need to SUCK IT UP! I’ve been a bag of whine and defeat lately. My body was so spent that I was leaning against the wall while blow drying my hair this morning! I do hit my WODs the best I can and I do want change but I’ve been letting my brain discourage me lately. I realized that this morning, hence the SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP. Am I still complaining on here… HELL YES! It’s what I do best but I understand I’m just hurting myself this way. So I am putting forth the effort after this post to stop beating myself up!

1/31/12

Today’s WOD did get me…. DAMN YOU BAR PUSHUPS! Let me begin with skill/strength first which gave me a boost of confidence for a whole minute… IF THAT! Handstand Push Ups! I have yet to master this skill. So we practice and we practice by stacking some bumper plates and throw and abmat on top. So we stacked it high enough for me to feel pretty confident in myself. Easy. I had to drop a whole centimeter, LOL, Jokes but it was rather easy and definitely confidence boosting. Well it can never just stop at easy so we replace one plate with a thinner plate and attempt more HSPUs. I still got it! Wooo… but again nothing close to full depth. Now I must rest with my head on the abmat and push from there. Guess what? I did it! 5 reps NO Problem! And now we remove the thinner plate to just the one plate and the abmat. I got 1 sad little “strict” push up and I was out for the count. Still a little confidence but when put to push past my limits I was at a fail. I know I have made major progress towards this movement so I’m not completely defeated but my HIGH was taken down a notch.  And we’re only on skill/strength!

Yes these KILLED me today!

The MetCon (key in dramatic music). 5 rounds for time… 5 Power Cleans (75lbs) 10 Bar Pushups! And this is when weakness overcame and I was sucking bad. Power Cleans – I got those. Towards the end I wasn’t getting my elbows up high enough so it took a little work but I was feeling pretty good and looked forward to the Power Cleans! I knocked out my first 10 bar pushups pretty ok. It’s the rest that killed me. It’s the rest that sucked up all the time and all my energy. What is a Bar Pushup? Well it’s when you put your hands on the barbell (pushup position), stabilize yourself (cause it rolls) and you knock out pushups. Chest must touch bar for it to count. I had about 7 NO REPS! ARGH! Misery! By the 5th round I had to do them one at a time. I had no strength left. I finished just under 10 minutes! I wasn’t even looking at clock because that would have brought me down more :/ Finished in 9:59. And then I just laid there. I thought I was learning to appreciate pushups and I wouldn’t say I love them but I don’t despise them… NOW after bar pushups I am reevaluating my relationship with the pushup in general!

Dinner! Such a Dull Pic but NOT Dull in Flavor!

I am not however reevaluating my love for food! I tried out a couple of new recipes! And they were yummo! I had ground beef out for dinner and had a couple of acorn squash. There must be something wonderful to make and I did find a recipe on the Whole9 Blog. They had stolen it from someone and now I have stolen it from them. I did not have dried cranberries but I did have dried cherries. So I replaced that one ingredient 🙂 And I doubled the recipe so we would have leftovers.

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 1 acorn squash
  • 1 pound grass-fed, organic ground beef (ground turkey would work, too)
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1 finely-chopped apple (we used a Braeburn, but find something local-ish)
  • ½ cup chopped cranberries (fresh, not dried)
  • ¼ cup chopped pecans
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • ½ tsp sage
  • unrefined coconut oil
  • salt, pepper

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to ~400 degrees.
  • Cut the acorn squash in half, and scoop out the seeds and any stringy stuff.
  • Place the squash cut side up in a large baking pan, and put a tablespoon of water into each “cup”, and pour ¼ cup of water into the bottom of the pan.
  • Loosely “tent” the pan with aluminum foil, and bake for 30-35 minutes.
  • While squash is baking, chop the onion, apple, pecans and cranberries.
  • Saute the beef and onion in a little coconut oil for 2-3 minutes, then add pecans, cranberries, and herbs. Add salt and pepper. Do not completely cook this mixture.
  • Pull squash out of the oven, spoon the mixture into the “cups” (heaped to overflowing is okay).
  • Bake uncovered for another 15-20 minutes.

Acorn Squash Getting Prepped to Bake

My Horrible Tent – I did fix it a bit but did not take pic :/

BEEF - It's what's for dinner!

Ingredients to Go with Ground Beef (that apple sure did brown super quick)

Everything sizzling and cookin' - YUM

Acorn Squash FILLED! Excuse my DIRTY oven. I just cleaned that thing a month ago1

Mine came a little overcooked on top. I should have paid better attention. But the rest of the meat mixture was perfect!

In addition the squash I had some Kale. I had never made Kale other than in “chip” form so I searched the interwebs yet again. Nom Nom Paleo had a good simple recipe. I did add mushrooms because I LOVE mushrooms and it turned out quite well!

Quick and Simple Stir-Fried Kale and Bacon

Here’s what I gathered for the recipe:

1 bunch of lancinato kale, leaves removed and thinly chopped
3 slices of bacon, cut in 1/4” strips
splash of Banyuls vinegar (the original recipe uses a squeeze of lemon)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Cook bacon till crispy, Add Mushrooms and let sautee for a couple of minutes. Add Kale in a bit at a time, letting it wilt some before adding more. Once it’s all wilted, add a dash of vinegar (I USED RED WINE VINEGAR). Voila! It’s done. Simple enough right?

Experimenting with the Kale

All Nice and Wilty... Really Vibrant Green... Love It

I was ambitious last night but not too ambitious so I wanted to make a quick sweet treat. I found a gluten free recipe for NO BAKE COOKIES. NO offense to the creator but I’d rather just call them No Bake Treats as they aren’t really “cookie” like. But still super tasty and addictive. I found this recipe on Gluten Free Fix. I substituted ALMOND BUTTER for the peanut butter.

New Treat - No Bake Cookie

Gluten Free No Bake Cookies

  • 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (ALMOND BUTTER)
  • 3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  1. In a pot, combine butter, honey and cocoa powder.  Bring to a boil, and boil for 1 minute, whisking constantly.  Remove from the heat.
  2. Stir in peanut butter, salt and vanilla.
  3. Stir in coconut flakes.
  4. Scoop cookies onto a parchment lined sheet tray.
  5. Refrigerate to set.
  6. Store in an airtight container in the fridge up to 1 week and freezer up to 1 month.

*yields 3 dozen gluten free no bake cookies

No Bake Cookie, More like NO BAKE TREAT - Addicting!

I’m pretty sure you could add just about anything to these that compliments the main ingredients and you will win. So give them a try. Big win in our house and easy to eat more than one so you gotta be careful!

Alrighty then, that’s it for this Tuesday. Remember to SUCK IT UP and just DO WORK! There’s no whining in CrossFit and there shouldn’t be any in LIFE. See ya mañana!

Beef, Milk and Is This Month Going to Ever End?

It seems like January will last FOREVER! We are stuck in this month. 2012 is dragging it’s butt! I am, however, quite pleased with the pleasant temperatures that we’ve been having. And I do truly FEAR February as it is quite unpredictable in regards to the weather. And all I can say is that Texas folks don’t fair well in icy conditions. The roads become a HOT mess!

But back to the nice weather. WE had a sunny and beautiful weekend. We get bouts of spontaneity and we decided to take a little field trip about 30 miles south of us to a nice little place by the name of Burgandy Boucherie.

Burgandy Boucherie

Farm Fresh Eggs (Ernie was excited there was a feather included)

They claim that they are the first and only exclusively pastured meats butcher market in the D/FW area. I have not researched this claim but I believe them 🙂 The place was stocked with a great variety of grass fed beef cuts both fresh and frozen. They also carry chicken, lamb and pork. In addition to their meats they also had fresh farm eggs, cheese, local honey, Himalayan salt and a few other goods. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable. And on the weekends you can order up hamburgers. They have several picnic tables in the boucherie for you to enjoy your meal. We were very pleased first time customers! I have yet to try any of the meats but we thawed out some ground beef for tonight’s dinner.

While we were at the boucherie we asked if they provided raw milk and some law doesn’t allow them to sell both but they referred to a few places. We chose the one closest to where we were at and by the recommendation of another customer. We headed a few miles south and ended up at Rosey Ridge Farms.

RAW MILK - YUMMO

Michievous Pig at Rosey Ridge Farms (they say he likes to escape often)

Being city folk we weren’t sure we were in the right place as there was just a few farm houses, cows, and horses on this dirt road our GPS led us to. We called to confirm we were in the right spot and they assured us we were and of course we finally spotted their sign! Go figure! We were a little bit in culture shock because we are clueless to country/farm living but it was quite the experience. The Hooley family was very nice and patient with us thankfully because we asked a lot of questions. Silly and serious. It was fun. Their milk is straight from the cow. No pasteurization, no homogenization, no hormones, antibiotics… NOTHING. Fresh MILK! We were anxious to get home and give it a try. Is this Paleo… NO not according to some but we still like our milk so we still buy milk. It’s not an every meal kind of thing. We add it to protein shakes, kids drink it with pancakes, etc. So before I get anyone out trying to be smart, I’m letting you know AGAIN, we are not on point 100% of the time. But we aim to eat clean, whole foods and keep it simple. Paleo 80%, 100% of the time.

I really failed in the photo op dept. I am sorry and I promise on our next visit I will be less in the moment and more in the snapshot mode. If you’re in the DFW area, I encourage you to take a weekend drive out to Grandview, TX. I wish I had brought my kids to see everything and I’m certain I will take them on our next trip out that way.

Now for this moring and my WOD. It was a simple day at the BOX, which I find really nice. We rarely have simple so it was a nice treat. My upper body is still beat up from last week. We started out with front squats which I can honestly say are not my favorite. But I did alright. My wrist/forearm flexibility still could use some work. I did struggle a little with just holding the bar but after a few attempts and experimenting with hand placement I got a little more comfortable with holding the bar. We did 5, 5, 5+ and I managed to get 12 reps at 80lbs on my last set. Which is pretty amazeballs because I’m not so strong on the front squats. So I should have a new PR sooner than later.

01/30/12 WOD

The MetCon was 6 50 yd sprints with 90 seconds of rest in between. Not so bad. I’m not a sprinter but I put forth my best efforts.

That’s it. The End. Happy Monday.

Rain, Sleep, and Realizing I’m Addicted to the Kool-Aid

Texas NEEDs rain, hell everywhere does but I wish (a petty wish) we could have the rain stop for rush hour traffic times. It really drains me! I don’t get the privilege to work from home and I have a 72 mile round trip commute. So YES I get to complain and rant about how I wish the rain would stop so I could get to and from work without so much trouble! Flooded roads, dumb drivers and other insanity drives me bonkers. Other than that I got no beef with the rain. I sleep really well when it’s storming or even drizzling, it’s like my brain/body get something from the sound of rain. Who knows why, but it’s nice.

As for dinner last night. Nothing super special, some grass fed ground beef tacos with guac and MEXICAN RICE! LOL, not really, but Cauliflower Spanish Rice! I learned how to make Asian Fried Rice and figured I could wing it in the Spanish department since I’m Mexican. I know most people I know still don’t believe I am because I don’t speak Spanish or whatever. I’m American but I come from Mexican roots 🙂

Tacos with Cauliflower Spanish Rice

Soooo moving on… I threw some cauliflower in the food processor and chopped it up till “rice” like. I added a little olive oil to a preheated pan and tossed in the cauliflower with some garlic and sauteed for a minute or two. I seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and cayenne pepper (i like spice). I then poured some salsa in (probably a cup, maybe more) and stirred it all up. Let it cook on medium for a couple of minutes. I then reduced temp to low/simmer and covered. I left simmering while I cooked ground beef and prepped taco toppings. There wasn’t a real science or perfect recipe. I just played around. I used to make it very similar when I ate Minute Rice! It’s the easy quick way to make Spanish Rice. It turned out a LIL TOO Spicy for the family. Edible but I should omit the cayenne pepper next time around! I really enjoyed it and even though it was spicy, kids asked for more. I think it was Ernie that was most affected by the spice. Hehe, next time I will lay off the HEAT.

Today was a much needed REST DAY! Mentally I’ve been stressed with the world around me and I’ve been pushing it hard at the box so it was good to sleep a little later than normal. My body thanks me! In my rest though I do realize how much I LOVE the KOOL-AID. I realize I named my blog in reference to drinking the CrossFit KOOL-AID but truly I LOVE IT. I’m addicted if you will. I don’t think I could be addicted to Step Class, Spin Class, Body Pump or Whatever other “class” is out there in the fitness world. BUT I can honestly say I look forward to my next workout, sometimes wishing I could fit in more WODs, but I don’t think physically I’m ready for such insanity.

I Want to Be Like Camille When I Grow UP! Seriously!

 

I think I adore CrossFit so much not only because it’s OVERALL fitness but it sets a bar daily for me personally. I have to do things I’ve never done before, I have to compete against myself for time/reps/rounds. I also mentally compete with others on the white board. I want to be the one who posts the best time and if I can’t then I want to try and meet the level of fitness of those names I see on the board who KILL it daily. It’s hard for me to express myself because there’s so much I want to say about it. I feel GREAT after every WOD. I’m ready to take on the day in all aspects.

Again All Shapes, Sizes and Fitness Levels

I see the COMMUNITY that evolves around CrossFit. I have yet to meet an elitist attitude or a debbie downer personality. Everyone wants to better themselves no matter what stage of fitness they are in. I have seen all shapes and sizes: super fit athletes, pregnant women, overweight folks, young, old, physically challenged… you name it and I’m pretty sure there’s someone in that category that CrossFits. Everyone has a goal to eat better, live better and be strong. It’s been a while since I’ve stepped on a scale to SEE where I’m at… my whole attitude and thought process that is EMBLAZONED in women’s brains to be a certain size has dissipated from my from thinking. I just want to be strong.

This a before and after - 1 year after CrossFit

82 years young, Jean nails a new deadlift 1RM PR at 153 lbs

I want to lift that bar and set a PR (Personal Record). I feel good. I realize my body has faults but I no longer hold them over my head. I’ve moved on. And no I’m not going to become a veiny, muscle head. Yes there are women out there who want that, I surely don’t and that takes a lot of “extra work” to get there. Lifting heavy doesn’t make me a freak of nature. It just makes me strong. I still have pregnancy damage to my stomach, I may never have a washboard for ABS again, I still have stretch marks, I still have jiggly spots but I know I’m leaner and more physically fit than I have been in a long time. And I am impressed daily by the CrossFit Community. I read the stories of success and failure. I am INSPIRED daily. I even registered on the CrossFit Games website for the OPEN! I may not make it past the first WOD but I signed up anyways. I’m not a firebreather and may not be one anytime soon but that’s how AMPED up I am on this sport! I get goosebumps when I see the Reebok CrossFit Commercial on primetime networks. I anxiously await my coach to post the next WOD. I look for the next competition I can attend or compete in. It’s an insane addiction I know. But it’s something everyone can do no matter where you are in life. It gives you the support system that will steer you in the direction of good health, strength, confidence, inspiration and so much more. I don’t get paid to say these things it’s just how I feel. Like I said it’s hard for me to explain because there is ALOT I want to say. And I just don’t know how to express it in a super great way. Just how my brain allows me to at this moment in time.

Strong Women!

Women All Shapes and Sizes

With all that said… it’s a great feeling to be strong. Happy RAINY Wednesday! Hopefully I don’t need a boat to get home later. Thanks for reading my “crazy”, unorganized thought process.

Not sure where this originates from... I believe CrossFit Ramstein but now sure.