No Words

There are no words to describe what showing up to workout does for my mindset. Even if it’s not at my very best. On Sunday I self-sabotaged and dived into the MSG cesspool of what we all know and love (ok maybe it’s just me) as the Chinese Buffet. A new one popped up near us and it was shiny and new. Why not? Right. There are so many reasons as to why not – mystery meats, mystery sauces, etc.

My stomach grumbled the whole evening, the whole night and straight into the morning. I was not up to par for some Monday morning running at the BOOM Box, SOOOOO I slept in. And I felt it all day. Granted the junk in my body had to filter it’s way through but I just was blah all day. It was noticeable.

This morning however, although I was hurting, I still showed up to CrossFit Boom. I ate my egg whites post workout, I ate my breakfast and I feel so much better. Mentally and physically the fog is lifting and I move forward. When you make working out part of your everyday it’s a big hole in your world when you skip out. Especially after some good rest and recovery.

Now I know some of you dive in, kill yourselves, you can’t move for days and by the time you get back in the gym it’s like starting over. And then you quit! Well it’s a vicious cycle I know. Just the same as eating JUNK. But you have to mentally plow through. Stick with it. Forge on. Don’t get stuck in the excuses people. I for one like to get stuck in them and KNOW this about myself already. It’s really all about self awareness and rising above what brings you down. I have learned personally since my completion of the Whole30 that I can’t be a one foot in, one foot out kind of person. I sway to much to the one foot that is on the outside. So last night, I said enough is enough and I got back on the cooking train. I made plenty of veggies to help me through the week. I have my proteins defrosting. Now I just need to get some bone broth back in my arsenal and all will be well in the world!

2/23/13 WOD
OoooEeeee, this was going to be work. And it was one of those crawl back in bed mornings. Coach could read it in all our bodies and faces. It was a drag ass start. But we finally got into it.

Skill/Strength: 15 minutes to establish a 1RM of the barbell complex:
1 Clean
3 Front Squats
1 Jerk
3 Back Squats
1 Behind the Neck Jerk

It’s been a while since I’ve done any sort of complex. You don’t realize how much it takes out of you. I wasn’t in any hurry to jump up to big weight and I wanted to really focus. I worked my way up to 95lbs. I really should have got 105lbs but I was having that whole drop under the bar issue in Cleaning the bar. And 105 is a weight I know I can do. It’s yet to be pretty, but I can Clean it. But I feel I did alright. Nothing amazeballs but I felt good.

MetCon: 3 rounds 14 CTB, 7 Snatches (full squat) 135/85#
I don’t have Pull Ups so we all know I’m not doing Chest To Bar. I choose banded Pull Ups… as if i have a choice! And Snatches. Over time I’ve learned not to dread this movement but I still have a ways to go in technique. I stuck with 55lbs for this WOD. It was a good weight for me to move quickly and still have good form. I knocked out the Pull Ups easier than I have in the past… is this Progress knocking at my door? Yes I think so! My first round of Snatches were a little sloppy. I was not keeping the bar close enough to my body. Once I corrected that I was on a roll. My 2nd and 3rd round of Pull Ups didn’t go as easily as the first round. But my Snatch got better. My forearms were spent but overall I felt good. Time: 11:01

2/26/13 WOD
Like I mentioned previously, It was nice to just show up even though I didn’t have the best performance. It was extra cold and windy this morning and everything was achy!

Skill/Strength: Pull Ups
I can’t complain. I need to get better. You can’t get better without working on it and so many of the BOOM ladies are knocking these out like they are easy or something! Pull Up land is waiting for me. I feel like I’m getting there. Still slow as a snail but I’m getting there.

MetCon: CrossFit Games Open WOD 12.5 – 7 minute AMRAP of 3 Thrusters, 3 CTB, 6 Thrusters, 6 CTB, 9 Thrusters, 9 CTB, etc.
The RX for Thrusters was 65lbs. Shouldn’t be a problem. But into my 2nd round, I had a pinch in my shoulder that hurt like bloody hell. I couldn’t push past it so I dropped the weight to 55lbs. The pain didn’t go away but I stuck with it. Hoping it’s just inflammation from the Buffet Indulgence. Again, with the Pull Ups I felt I had a little more in me than I have in the past. My shoulder however really was hindering me. Total Reps: 48 I did better last year but I wasn’t in pain last year. I took a lot of time standing around. I feel confident I could have done much better had I not taken the time to switch weight, stand around in pain, etc. I made sure to do some hurts so good mobility afterwards. Hoping that helps in the long run.

That’s it for this Beautiful Tuesday. I’m hoping this week stays strong and positive! Stay focused. Drop the Excuses and as always be AWESOME!

Work, Rest, More Work, Breathe

Last week was hectic and as I told you all, I was worn out. I couldn’t manage to roll out of bed Friday morning so I skipped out on the Boom Box. I was feeling better by the middle of the day and decided I would hit up an evening class. So glad I did. I needed it. Working out is mostly a LOVE relationship, but sometimes it’s a Love/Hate kind of thing because when you are so worn out and you don’t show up then you feel like crap for not getting that work out in! It’s not very fun. But in the end you know you need the rest. After my workout on Saturday, I declared a do nothing kind of day. That is do nothing after the boys had baseball practice! They would be gone the rest of the day. Ernie would be gone the rest of the day. So I caught up on my DVR and slept… ALOT! It was good I needed it. On the downside, I let the cakeballs get the best of me! DAMN YOU CAKEBALLS! I made sure I cleared them out by inhaling them though. There are no more living in our house. All is back to normal. May the clean eating resume. The open is near, and although I won’t be even close to the top ladies in our region I don’t want to feel like POO when doing the open WODS. Cakeballs! Grrr 😀

2/15/13 WOD
Skill/Strength: Deadlift 3 x 3 @ 85%
I’ve never felt so good doing Deadlifts. So I’m happy to say that I feel progress in this movement. Besides my hands feeling like they are on fire, I’m not having many issues with getting the weight off the ground. Working up to 170lbs was good and doing my 3 sets of 3 were feeling really good. Hopefully a nice PR is coming up!

2/15/13 WOD

MetCon: 15, 12, 9 of Wall Balls and Chest To Bar
So I’m a little more flexible at the end of the day than I am at 5 am. So Wall Balls although brutal aren’t as bad on the hips in the P.M. My shoulders were not too happy with me in general but I got the job done better than I have been in the past. It’s the damn Pull Ups that still get me! Time 7:02

2/6/13 WOD
Oh holy crap, you want me to run when it’s in the 30s and you want me to run a mile coach! I really really didn’t want to show up to the BOOM Box on a Saturday morning to run but of course I couldn’t punk out. I’ve been progressing it is true in most things but running is not one of them. And everyone else’s progression is on FAST TRACK or something so I have to catch up with the group! I know, I know, it’s me vs. me but still. You see so many folks getting PRs and it’s great and awesome for them. But here I am not getting PRs or fast tracking it. So ya, I reluctantly showed up!

2/16/13 WOD

Skill/Strength: Front Squats EMOM for 7 minutes. 2 reps with a 3 second pause at the bottom @ 75% of our 1 RM
I haven’t tested for Front Squat in a very long time, so 75% for me was 100lbs. Coach was sure I could do more so we upped it a whopping 5lbs. By the end of the 7 minutes I could feel those 5lbs! It kind of feels good to hold the squat at the bottom for a couple of seconds. I’m not sure exactly what pauses do for you mechanically or in terms of getting stronger, but I trust they are good for you.

MetCon: Run 1 mile, 50 Power Cleans (75lbs), 30 HSPU
Running! Booooo! I started off on a slow but steady pace. My right shin is still pretty beat up so I felt that for a while with every step I took. but 2/3 of the way back my left calf and shin decided to speak up and well they were LOUD. My jog became a slow trot. It was horrible. Again another poor run performance. Something in the 11 minute mark. Everyone had been back and busting through those Cleans! I didn’t do the 75lbs, because I’m a wuss and thought I wouldn’t be able to do 50. Turns out I probably should have/could have. I caught up pretty quickly after being so behind on the run. I still don’t execute HSPU very well without being modified so I did them off the box. And that turned out to be surprisingly easy. I’m somewhere in the middle, I suppose. Which is great! HSPUs here I come! Time: 16:34

02/18/13 WOD
Whew, finally made it to this morning! It was a humid one for us, thankfully NO MetCon today! Wooooo! Eh, I do like MetCons but working on strength is fun too.

Skill/Strength: Overhead Mobility, Pull-Up Mechanics
We did some bar torture and some PVC work with Overhead Squat Mechanics. We then worked on kipping. I am tight. My upper back, shoulders and whatever else that can be tight is TIGHT! It is no fun. On the bright side of everything hurting I forget my hands hurt so I felt a little stronger when it comes to kipping. I feel a little more coordinated and hopefully I’ll get some form of a pull up SOON.

2/18/13 WOD

OHS 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
It’s been a long while since I’ve worked on my Overhead Squats. A long while. So I wasn’t sure what weight to start at and what weight I should end with. I decided to warm up to 65lbs. I was feeling good. I jumped from 65lbs to 75lbs because I was trying to get to 90lbs for my final set. 90lbs is my current 1RM. So I figured if I got that then I would be set for a nice PR in the future. 75lbs is where it got heavy though! Not really heavy but painful on the wrists. EVEN with my strength wraps But I still went on and knocked out 80 and 85lbs. Instead of going for 90lbs, I went for 95lbs. Got the Bar overhead and panicked. I hesitated just thinking about squatting and it was an immediate MENTAL fail! Ah well. Maybe next time!

As far as food goes, it hasn’t been AWESOME but I’ve had some good moments. Like I said earlier, the CrossFit Games Open is coming up fast and I need to dial it back in with my eating. I don’t want to suck at everything more so than I already do because my eating is out of whack. So I’m reeling all the slip ups in and putting my Whole30 discipline back into action. Crossing my fingers I stick with it 😀

Leave me a comment if you are interested in the Whole30 or have questions. Nutrition is key when trying to find good health and fitness. Not only does eating clean make you feel better in general it completely makes working out that much easier. As I routinely say, you NEED to make a CHANGE. Whether it’s jumping in the deep end of the pool or taking BABY steps like cutting out crazy beverages and just taking in Water. Make a CHANGE in your life. Without it you will always be stuck in your rut.

Other than that, let’s hope this Monday doesn’t end up crazy. Have a great day and of course MAKE IT AWESOME!

Skills to pay the bills – NOPE

So if I HAD to do Pull Ups to pay bills, I would be broke forever. I have no PULL UP skills! And today was all about SKILLS, no lifting, no MetCon. Yes I know I probably should do some movement homework but I don’t. SO YES it’s my fault. I just want to get that out of the way in case some of you have some smart remarks for me 😀 It’s just defeating mentally. I’m getting better (at least for the most part) at everything else even if it’s in small increments and I’m not practicing those skills outside of the box. So why is it that Pull Ups are such a burden for me? UGH! Pull UP fairy where are you?

Is she only using like 2 fingers to hold herself up? Crazy! I suck!

Today at the BOOM box we only worked on Pull Ups and Muscle Ups. And when I say Muscle Ups I don’t mean I really worked on those but I worked on movements that fall into line with the movement. For Pull Ups, I pretty much only worked on kipping. It hurts to hold on to the bar no matter if I have grips, or just bare hands. I know I can be a baby but come on. IT HURTS my hands. I don’t want to hold on to the bar. Regardless of the pain, I have kipping down. I could be a professional kipper maybe. I just have no UP

After Pull Ups, like I said MUs! UGH. I worked on Ring Dips since that is what I need to get first. And low and behold I went from using the green band to the tiny blue band. I think I will have those pretty soon. My shoulders, rotator cuff is forever sore/tight/etc. But I could manage to get some work in. Once our time was up, I really worked on my shoulder mobility. It is much needed. So I’m glad I got that in. I even worked at home on my shoulders. It’s just hard to make it a priority at home, when I have 7897897 things to do in the evenings. Still taking sponsorships so I can stay at home! I’m scared for what tomorrow brings at the box especially since today wasn’t a beat down. Although Skill work is a beatdown to me when I can’t do the skill!

Getting my Boxing On
Since I missed my WOD this past Wednesday, I decided I needed to make up for it. I can’t make the BOOM Box other than 5 am due to my commute so I hit up a semi-new Boxing franchise that has been popping up in the DFW area. They offer a free class for first time visitors, SCORE for me. Back before my boot camp and CrossFit journey, I took boxing lessons from a local Boxing/MMA club. While this was an awesome thing for me, I wasn’t committing to proper nutrition and it was hitting my pocket book pretty hard, so I took a hiatus and never returned. With that said I love boxing, not real boxing because I don’t want to get hit but boxing against a bag.

What I liked about Title Boxing Club is that the particular instructor I had wasn’t about just having a little aerobics class. He wanted you to really throw punches, real kicks and get a workout in. He worked with everyone in regards to technique and making sure people were not half-assing it. We started with about a 15 minute warm up which consisted of running, push ups, lunges and high knees.. Small 1 minute water breaks were incorporated. 30 minutes of boxing, kick boxing, with drills in the middle. So we might do Jump Squats, Jumping Jacks, Up Downs, etc. in between boxing combinations. For the last 10-15 minutes we did a lot of core work such as sit ups, butterfly kicks, push ups, etc. Overall my boxing endurance SUCKED but it felt good to hit something! This would never be BETTER than CrossFit for me, but definitely something I would consider doing a few times a month.

What I didn’t like is that there isn’t a drop in option. You pay for a month at a time which isn’t incredibly expensive, but with their limited times, my commitment to CrossFit and kids schedules, I’m not sure if it’s worth it for me. It was a good workout, I sweat my butt off and let out some aggression. Lifting weights seems to do the trick as well but again I love boxing and doing something different was fun!

Whole(30)LIFE

Yup I gave you the review yesterday and I am OFFICIALLY through with 30 days. And I still made my Whole30 compliant breakfast today, brought leftovers for lunch and plan on eating just the same as I have been the past 30 days. Not a big deal in my book. I worked hard for this and I’m gonna stick to it. I feel good. I don’t want to go back to feeling icky. And when it’s all said and done, FOOD doesn’t run my world, no matter how delicious, decadent or savory it can be. WholeLIFE folks!

Dinner I almost finished before I remembered to take a pic: Chopped up sirloin, mixed veggies, avocado.

All the positive results have been great and on top of that I LOST 8.2LBS without even trying. I wasn’t counting calories, I was eating till I was satiated. I was eating good grass-fed meats, veggies and healthy fats. 3 times a day. PWO meals if needed.

Happy Friday! It’s FEBRUARY… if you fell apart in January, start over now! Don’t throw in the towel! Be Awesome this weekend!

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!

Get Moving!

Yup if you watched the Biggest Loser last night then you know I straight up took it from there. And Yes I am watching the Biggest Loser! I’ve watched it off and on throughout the years and YES the fact that Bob Harper drinks the KOOL-AID keeps me intrigued to watch it currently. And YES it’s made for TV drama – pulls on your emotions kind of thing and now they’ve pulled in kids to really tug those emotions. I’m not going to make it a point to recap the show regularly or whatever but it’s fresh on my mind right now.

It does make me a lil happy that these people are trying. Judge me, Judge the show, I care not. At least they are making efforts. I don’t know what their lives will be like when they get home and I probably will never know. I can just hope they inspired others to get fit and that they continue to stay fit. One of the best quotes from one of the ladies on the show was “I’m not here to get skinny, I’m here to get STRONG”. Hell ya lady. That’s the right kind of attitude. I loved it! The whole idea of last nights show was to GET MOVING. And it’s so right on.

Another thing that stayed with me (totally rephrasing, not verbatim) was when the Dr. on the show that tells the contestants their results of all the tests they took. He looked at this guy and says if I told you that you had lymphoma then you would dedicate 2 hours a day to chemo or whatever treatment that you had to do right? They guy was like YES SIR. He goes on to explain that he has arteries of an 80 yr old man and that he should know his disease is SERIOUS and to dedicate the time to fixing his disease of being overweight. POINT TAKEN! If you can’t understand how important it is to take your health into your own hands then what’s the point? Again, you aren’t here to be SKINNY. Be here to be STRONG and you don’t have to be muscle builder status, Just BE STRONG. Heart Strong, Mental Strong, I can push this CAR strong, I know I can do anything STRONG.

So with that said folks, take a look at you. Whether you’re at the beginning of your journey… debating to have a start point, or well into your fitness. You know where you are. You know if you’re lying to yourself daily. Maybe you’ve hit the healthy point and you just need to keep yourself in check or maybe you’re the person that says I’ll start next Monday. Why wait? Make one baby step to better living today. Put the sugar and creamer down. Don’t buy that fountain drink today. Drink water today only. Then start tomorrow fresh. Walk around the block. I’m the jump in the deep in kind of girl. I tried the baby steps and well there’s too much room for excuses. So COLD TURKEY is best for me. As I see it, it should be the only option. Leaving room for excuses is a bad deal. I will take full advantage in justifying why something is or isn’t good for me. Oh one slice isn’t gonna hurt me, I’ve would typically eat three slices. That’s not right folks. Get dedicated and disciplined first. Then after a few weeks you can, IF YOU REALLY feel that need to eat something sinful then do it. But learn the ways, learn control, know your limits. Hopefully by then when you take a bite of yummy badness it may be too sweet and you can only tolerate a bite. Maybe if you’re like me, will still inhale it but feel like crapola afterwards and really know it’s not worth it.

Pipe down already. You know I’m a rambler. Moving on to my BOOM Box morning. I was asleep before the WOD posted, thank goodness or I would have forced myself to sleep. I awoke to BAR Muscle Up work and Burpees and Pull Ups. Yay fun!

Bar Muscle UP

Skill/Strength: Bar Muscle Ups
Let me begin by telling you I’m scared of being so high off the ground. And the rig at the box has high bars. There are some that are lower that I can physically jump up and grab but they are not set up to do muscle ups. So the BAR that is is SCARY! I can’t even do a Muscle Up but it’s scary! So this morning we worked on the movement, the kip and well I’m scared. I remember in elementary school I could freaking get up on those bars, and spin in circles. The lack of fear in a child’s eye. Oh how I wish I had that now. But I don’t.

1/8/13 WOD

MetCon: 10-1 Burpees Behind Clap, Pull Ups
Anytime you see 10-1, it means you do 10 of the movement and work your way down to 1. So 10 Burpees, 10 Pull Ups, 9 Burpeed, 9 Pull Ups and so forth. As much as I despise burpees, they beat running and pull ups combined. I already wasn’t so great with the pull ups. After my small hiatus, they are even a little less great. It’s really defeating mentally. At some point last year I was really focused on putting in the extra work but it was short lived. I can’t let another year go by without putting forth the practice. But until this moment it hasn’t even been a second thought. 2013 will be the year of my first strict pull up, hopefully multiple and just being better on the bar in general. Yup I just said that. Now I gotta live up to it. But I digress. As for the MetCon, I did well with burpees and sucked with Pull Ups, giving me a sad time of 12:56.

Whole30 Days 6 & 7
I got home last night and was rather uninspired for dinner. I googled all that I could for unique ground beef recipes that included a majority of ingredients I had in the kitchen. Nothing jumped out at me so I just went with cooking the beef with seasoning I like and use it for later. I cooked a serving side for me in another pan, added spinach and some sweet potato and it turned out being really scrumptious. Nothing fancy but really tasty. While I had been cooking the ground beef I was also baking a few chicken thighs. They were done at the same time I was ready to eat dinner so I threw one on top of my ground beef bowl. It was quite tasty as well. Of course I didn’t take a picture but I promise it was good.

This morning I had what’s become a routine Post Workout Meal of 2 hardboiled eggs and some sweet potato. This hits the spot. For breakfast which I ate an hour later I had 2 slice of Pork Belly, 1 cup of spinach, more sweet potato (I may turn orange soon), and some cherries. I know more cherries, I love cherries and I’m not eating them in excess, I promise. For lunch I brought a Kiwi! On the Whole30 lists, I have so far mostly picked the * items which are the more nutrient dense fruits and vegetables. So I feel good with my fruit selections. Also for lunch I brought the ground beef I cooked last night. I also made a experimental version of cauliflower rice. I sauteed so shallots and garlic in GHEE (which by the way is FABULOUS!), added my shredded cauliflower, let that toast up. I then added Vegetable Stock (I bought this because the ingredients were safe, I was rather surprised that my go to chicken stock had sugar in it 😦 ) I don’t have measurements for the stock as I was just pouring it in a little at a time. After what I felt was enough stock I added a can of tomato paste and stirred it all around. Added a little more stock because the cauliflower got a little thick in my opinion. Seasoned it with Cumin, Chili Powder, Salt and Pepper and let it simmer away. I barely tasted it this morning and it seemed to good. But the real test will be for lunch. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Day 7 Pre Work Out Meal
2 hardboiled eggs
1 cup sweet potato

Day 7 Breakfast
2 slices pork belly
1/2 cup sweet potato
1 cup spinach
6 cherries

Day 7 Lunch
1 cup ground beef (approx)
1-2 cups brocolli
2 cups cauliflower rice
1 kiwi

Day 7 Dinner
Probably steak but TBD

I had a super burst of ENERGY last night and it’s pretty much seeped into today. I feel really really really refreshed. I know Whole30 has a breakdown of the days and how you may be feeling. Well if Day 6/7 is FEELING REALLY GREAT then I’m on track! Too bad my body is sooooo sore from all the squats yesterday cause it hurts to walk!

On another note, there was Karma payback for Ernie yesterday. All that junk food junkie got him good yesterday. He finally showed up to the box, did a little warm up on the rower, and pushed the new EVIL sled a couple of times and low and behold he puked his guts out! Not that I wish that on him or anyone cause it sucks… but ya, he was done and out. Came home early and I thought he’s really done, he’s quit CrossFit. But he was just sickly. Hopefully today is better for him. 2 days of clean eating under his belt should help.

Have a beautiful day. Change something NOW, not tomorrow, or next week, NOW! And Be AWESOME while you’re changing!

Day of Blah!

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

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

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

11/7/12 WOD

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

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

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

Happy Wednesday

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

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

10/31/12 WOD

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

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

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

Can’t get over the whole bee thing!

Competing Everyday

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

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

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

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

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

10/23/12 WOD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the World Keeps Spinning

Day in and Day out, and we must keep moving. If you’ve kept up with me from the beginning you’ll know that I mostly ramble and whine on this thing I call a blog. Every now and then I get serious or actually try to be motivating. And sometimes I’m just sad. Yesterday Ernie lost his mother to cancer and it just breaks my heart. It blows. So today I am sad and my heart is heavy but I also found myself in better spirits today than I thought I would be. Because even though in the sadness I know we have to keep moving forward. If you told me a year and half ago after my mom left this world that I would have changed my whole way of living/eating/moving I would have laughed in your face. I always have had healthy life goals but not at the level I’m at now. And here I am, addicted to CrossFit, eating clean and living life. I’m not rainbows and roses everyday but that’s the goal. Life is short, we know this, so let’s make sure we make it fun. If you have kids, laugh with them, show them life at times must be serious but also show them you HAVE to have fun as well. If you don’t have kids and want new adventure then TAKE on adventure. Make some small or big change and enjoy your life. Set new goals. Be SOMEONE you never thought you’d be. Because at the end of the day the world keeps spinning with or without you.

For Ernie, because I love ya. (It’s not the heavy version cause I like this acoustic and this kid does a good job!)

Y’all know I’m wordy! And thank you all for sticking around to read about my little part of the world. I appreciate it, I really do. Enough about me being gushy and cheesy. I’ll move onto what the whiteboard had in store for us at the BOOM Box!

Skill/Strength: 3 x Max Strict Pull Ups and 3 x Max Ring Dips. Sigh, Huff and Puff and more Sighing. The PULL UP. This morning I went with the green band only. I know I’ve not put my best foot forward in getting this monster of a skill accomplished. I know. It’s me. So today instead of opting for that crutch of a blue band I left it there hanging right next to my green band. And I only could muster up 4 1/2 pull ups. Heheh YES I struggled for that half pull up but all I could get was halfway up! And I’m gonna own it. After that I could only manage 1. Try and try with all my might and I couldn’t bust out one more. Pull Up you have not won the war!

I’m a little stronger at the Ring Dips, not much but enough to tell a difference. I am however much weaker in the shoulders, old age perhaps? Or just a wussy tolerance to pain. Instead of using a band today, Coach had me use a bench for foot support. This was much more difficult than using a band and I’m pretty sure I only got 3 my first attempt, then 4 for the the 2nd and 3rd attempt. Anybody want to trade me shoulders? Anybody?

MetCon: 20 Hang Cleans (65lbs), 200m run, 15 Hang Cleans, 200m run, 10 Hang Cleans, 200m run, 5 Hang Cleans, 200m run. Today the HANG CLEAN didn’t beat me. Woohoo for that small victory. Besides not getting into a good rhythm for the first 20 I feel like I did pretty good at knocking the reps out. I didn’t put the bar down and I just kept chugging away. It’s always the running that kills me! The running! It’s been a while since I’ve had RX by my name. Time: 8:39

Make Thursday amazing. Hug someone’s neck; stare at the sky and appreiciate life; take a walk in the park. SMILE and be AWESOME.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29638108@N06/5222803481/

idrankthecfkoolaid

and it's good

pull ups

No Words

Work, Rest, More Work, Breathe

Skills to pay the bills – NOPE

Home Stretch

Pressing On

Get Moving!

Day of Blah!

Happy Wednesday

Competing Everyday

And the World Keeps Spinning

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