Rest

A week off = Bittersweet

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So I rested as in I took a week off from my workouts and did nothing but sleep in and eat. Of course my life went on as anything else but I laid off the physical activity. And it was a much needed break. My body needed the break.

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The only downside to taking a whole week off, for me at least, is that it’s hard to motivate myself into getting back to it. Fortunately, just showing up again is worth it and even though the break felt good, it is time to get back to work.

And work it was. Back squats that I wasn’t feeling strong at and the CrossFit Games Open WOD 14.1. For the past two years I’ve paid my fee and joined the tens of thousands to compete. This year, with a weak wrist and a weak self, I opted out. It didn’t make sense for me to pay the $20 and not be sure if I’d be able to handle movements like Power Cleans or Clean & Jerk. So I did not and guess what? 14.1 has my strengths! Doubles Unders and low weight Snatch. Now I know deep down I wouldn’t be able to hang with the Elite ladies out there but this is a workout I CAN do. Lucky for me, even if I’m not in the OPEN, I still have to do the workout!

CrossFit-Open-14.1-Workout-Announced

So I stroll in NOT wanting to do any work at all, but I’m here now so I must. We do 8 sets of 3 Back Squats at 85% of our 1RM. I did more like 80% because I was feeling OH SO WEAK. But with a weeks worth of rest, my HIPS were feeling great.

The we move on to warming up our Double Unders and Snatches. 55lbs feels good, light even so I’m actually ready to go. All until the clock starts and I mess up on DUs immediately! WTH?!? After I finally made it through 30, which sadly took almost a full minute I moved onto the 15 Snatches at 55lbs. The “lightweight” that it was 5 minutes before is now ridiculously heavy. After 5 reps I was mentally ready to quit. Somehow, somehwhere I convinced myself to keep going. But it was at a snail’s pace considering my goal should be to BEAT EVERYONE. As the rounds went on my DUs got better and when I focused on good form, of course the Snatches were much more awesome. I finally got some UMPH in me with like 2 1/2 minutes to go. Hahah, who does that? UH ME :/ Final: 211 reps and I can honestly say it was a poor showing. Ah well. I’m sure there will be a variation of this workout come 2015. Maybe I’ll have my crap together by then …. maybe.

3/3/14 WOD

3/3/14 WOD

And that is all I got for this fine Tuesday. Besides the bipolar weather here in Texas, all is good. I hope you all are doing great and go ahead and make those changes you’ve been holding off on. Get back to working out. Clean eating. Or whatever it is you do, unless it’s meth, then stop. Stop now. But other than that, find your healthy happy place.

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200!

I’ve made it to 200 posts. It’s not monumental I know but for me it’s pretty cool. I started blogging almost a year ago and with my track record of starting things and not following through I wasn’t certain I’d keep it up. But alas I have! I started out pretty much doing it for me and documenting my workouts, food, etc. Also hoping some friends, acquaintances or even random strangers would be inspired to find the Healthy Balance in their life. As time went on and people, REAL people, started reading and giving me some blog love and feedback. It was great and this blog became more than just my public diary.

I’m a small speck of dust in the grand scheme of life but I’m not unlike thousands of other folks out there who just live an ordinary life that’s chock full of kids, events, work, struggling, etc. I have nothing unique to offer the world. I’m not saving lives, starting non profits, writing books, or even traveling the world trying to bring water to 3rd world countries. I don’t have a serious life threatening disease or sickness. I don’t have a special story. I’m a mom, who has struggled with weight loss and single parenting. After I used every excuse (no money, no babysitter, no time, plus whatever else you can imagine) in the book as to why I couldn’t work out or eat healthy I finally said enough is enough. It’s sad that it took my mother’s funeral to put me in that place. I wasn’t morbidly obese or on the verge of homelessness but I wasn’t in a good place. Having to shop for “funeral” clothes and not finding anything that fits just flat out made me cry. Is that petty and ridiculous? Probably so but that’s sparked a change in me. It’d be nice if people didn’t have to get to a “low” to realize they need change. It took me 9 months after I chose to change to realize I should be writing down my journey. Again, I’m not changing the world I KNOW this. Just hoping to be relatable. I always used to get so angry at shows like the BIGGEST LOSER or EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER. Not that I didn’t like them or that they weren’t tear jerking but why can’t there be the “I’m 30-50 lbs overweight and I need help” show? Why can’t there be a “I do the right thing, I’m employed, I pay my bills but I can’t afford to fix my car/house/etc, so can you help me fix the hole in my roof” show. Well because that’s BORING, it doesn’t make good TV. So there’s no one to help you but you. Drop the excuses and just do something, anything to take that step towards getting physically active and towards eating healthy.

Hopefully in this blog you have found inspiration, comic relief and understanding that we all have great characteristics that makes us AWESOME, that we all have faults, we all have success and we all failure. I hope you stick around for the next year and I hope that I can step up this blog somehow. Not sure how I plan to do that, but that is a goal. Cause truthfully I would like to be doing more to motivate and help people. But at this point my kids are my priority!

In other news, I chose to take today as my REST day because I was tired. Believe you me, I needed sleep. I was passed out before 10 and slept through alarms that went off later than my normal BOOM Box alarm. Good news is that I got a FULL 8 hours of sleep! Amazing! There isn’t a Community WOD tomorrow but I may take the time to get some sprints in, make the kids do them with me too! We’ll see!

And I’ve put this off but not any longer.  A couple of weeks ago I was given the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award” by Sam over at Life is Bangin’. This award entails giving your readers some insight into you, and nominating others to do the same. While this award is ever-changing, depending on whose site you are nominated from, I have been presented with the task of listing 7 things about myself, then nominating 15 fellow blogs to do the same. Sam thought 15 was a bit excessive, and it is to me too, so I went with less.

7 things about me

1. If you know me you know this. I have 3 BOYS. They are my world. They keep me insane, happy, crazed, young, and happy.

2. I have a boyfriend who chooses to stay involved in our insane world and does his best to be there for all of us. Although right now his best is **coughcough–eating junk foods_coughcough* which doesn’t help me! Jokes, it’s not his fault just not helping!

3. I have an insane addiction to CrossFit but you should gather that already. I’ve worked out to many programs, dvds, classes, etc. CrossFit is my crack!

4. I’m a graphic designer in the real world.

5. I love animals and would own a zoo if I could.

6. I wish I could be a Rock Star. I love to rock out to RockBand but would never take my non singing skills public.

7. I miss my mom.

I was supposed to pay it forward and give the award to blogs I love. Well I’ve kept my blog world to a minimum and always give them shout outs… such as Martha, Jenn, Sam, CultFit, and Christen. I’ve delayed the pay it forwad to give me time to find new people to include in my blogosphere. I’ve essentially been stalking other blogs, not really “following” them officially but taking peeks here and there and liking what their up to. So check these folks out:

http://ieatdrinkwod.com/

http://crossfitathomeblog.wordpress.com/

http://logoffandgorun.wordpress.com/

http://imperfectreason.wordpress.com/

http://squatsandstilettos.wordpress.com/

http://findmymotivation.com/
Have a great weekend y’all! And here’s a little PSA: It’s time for a CHANGE. TIME CHANGE that is – FALL BACK! Don’t forget to be AWESOME!

I might be the Walking Dead

Or I felt like it this morning. I was running on little sleep, no energy and some tight/sore/fatigued muscles. There was this running thought that I couldn’t leave Andrea (Boom Box Buddy) hanging. And because of her, not me, I rolled out of bed with every ache and pain screaming at me to go back to bed! In the end the WORKOUT always wins and I always feel better so it’s not a bad thing. I just wish I could be more chipper at 4:30 in the A.M.

Skill/Strength: Kettlebell Split Lunges 3 x 10 Working UP to As Heavy As Possible. If you recall I was just recently introduced to the Split Lunge and it really hits your gluteus maximus so I’m scared for what tomorrow brings. This time around it wasn’t AS difficult because we had weight in our hand vs. weight on our shoulders but it still wasn’t easy!

Kettle Bell Split Squat – Wish this was me but it is not :/

I picked up the 1/2 Pood KBs and mentally said these are heavy. They aren’t really but I still opted to start out with 15lb dumbbells. Woooo a whole 3lbs lighter. I’m dumb sometimes. But it was an easier transition to the awkward KBs which I completed just fine. It was time for our 3rd set and I jumped up to 1 POOD (35lbs) in each hand and that was a shocker! They got heavy fast and my grip was hurting. I did 5 on each leg before I wussed out and went back to the 1/2 pood to finish it out. I was struggling BAD!

9/25/12 WOD

MetCon: 5 rounds of 12 Inch Worms in Place, 3 Deadlift (140lbs), 6 Bar Facing Burpees. It’s been a joke in our BOX about having a WOD with Inch Worms because for some reason INCH WORMS are disliked by a majority of the folks. I however don’t mind them really. Maybe because I have short limbs. I really don’t know for certain, but they don’t bother me so much. So it was kind of funny when I saw that this movement was in the WOD. I will say they are a pain in the ass after you’ve done about 40 or so! RX for the Deadlift was 185 (my 1RM) and Coach T(ravis) suggested 140lbs so I went with that. Besides letting burpees get into my head for rounds 3 and 4, this WOD was kind of good. At least I felt good in the IT HURTS REALLY BAD BUT I DID ALL KINDS OF WORK sense of things. And like I said I was dragging. I felt super WEAK the whole morning. I was sweating more than usual and could feel the fatigue in every inch of my body. I fought through and finished at 10:36.

So happy tomorrow is a REST DAY! I need it!!! I hope you all get in some good rest days as well. I’ve learned the HARD WAY, you must schedule some R&R or your body will quit on you! And you will lose in the end. When I say R&R I mean Rest and RECOVERY. You gotta moblilize and still move but not at an intense speed. Give some love to your muscles and joints! See you on Thursday unless something awesome and magical happens that I need to report on mañana! BEEEE AAWWEESSOOOMMEE!

NO TITLE THURSDAY!

Cause I’m lame and at a loss for something cool or cute to say.

As most of you know Wednesdays are my rest days and that’s what I do. REST and after reading a post over at Whole9 on RECOVERY vs. REST, (http://whole9life.com/2012/05/rest-vs-recovery/) I made sure I recovered. I typically do put some recovery work in but sometimes I’m not so thorough or consistent. I think also having a half day from work and taking the boys to the dentist was good mental recovery. We had a fun afternoon and evening… it was much needed.

This morning at the boom box was all about working on KB Snatch and a TEAM WOD. For KB Snatch we were supposed to go as heavy as possible but on Tuesday I kind of tweaked my wrist/forearm/elbow with the hang cleans so for safety’s sake I stayed at a lower weight. Man o Man do I suck at the dang snatch in any form, whether it be with the bar or the kettlebell. I’m telling you, I don’t know why I don’t get it. I managed to get some ok reps in but most of them stunk. It’s technique and it’s work and I will get it. I need to really invest in some equipment for at home practice.

5/17/12 WOD

There was only one TEAM because the 5am class was slackin’ this morning. YES if y’all are reading this SLACKERS! LOL, jokes, y’all probably would have took us down anyways! Hehe, NO WAY! I’m awesome, REMEMBER? So anyways, my teammate and I had to tackle 200 situps and 100 burpees, woohooo… and the kicker is to run 200m every 2 minutes. So when you do a team WOD typically only one person is doing the work. Except for when it was run time. One person runs and the other is still doing the movements that need to be completed. The situps weren’t so bad. We did our best to split it evenly and it worked out pretty ok. The burpees are what sucked. Especially when you have to run every 2 minutes. I think I got away with less burpees, THANK GOODNESS and our end time was 12:51. First place! For like an hour! LOL, we’ll see how the day shapes up.

Day 17 Sugar Detox

Yup I’m still going strong. Mentally I think I will always want a treat. It’s engrained in my brain. I grew up on Little Debbie products, pie for dessert and the occasional banana split from Braums when my parents felt like getting some ice cream. It’s never been a daily habit to have dessert and it sure hasn’t been that way in my house when I started a family. But in my head there’s always room for a sweet treat. As far as cravings go, I don’t get the desire to eat something sweet which is WAY AWESOME because I truly would salivate at the thought of eating something yummy, like an ooey gooey cookie straight from the oven. But I know I’ll always dream of eating sugary goodness. And I also know I can deal with it.

I know I haven’t been on the up and up with trying new recipes. I will truly get back to that when life slows down a little bit. I do hope though that you all are out there trying new things. This morning in my mad dash to get ready in the morning I did through some cauliflower, broccoli and bacon in the oven. YUMMO! I made this the other day but wasn’t all that hungry so I never even tasted it, so I’m looking forward to my lunch 🙂

Ready to Go in the OVEN 🙂

It’s not hard to make. I had a head of cauliflower and a giant broccoli head as well. I cut both up into florets and chopped up some bacon. I threw it all in a gallon ziploc bag, tossed in some olive oil, garlic, pepper, himalayan salt and cayenne pepper. Shook it all up. Poured it onto a foil lined baking sheet and popped in the oven (400°) for 30 minutes! I now have a delicious lunch side to eat with some ground beef and veggies I made as well THIS MORNING!

Have a great Thursday. Be AWESOME!!

 

Survived Day 1 – ONTO Day 2! Sugar Detoxing

Today is a good ol’ REST day! Thank goodness. It’s much needed rest. My shoulders are dead from all those Power Cleans yesterday.

I survived Day 1 of the 21-Day Sugar Detox! Woohoooo 20 days to go!!!! Wow I can’t think of it like that it seems so far away. One day at a time or my head may explode.

Yesterday around 10:30am a headache kicked in. I rarely get headaches since starting paleo so I was not happy. I choose not to take Advil or Tylenol or any relief so I just sucked it up and upped my water intake. I typically have one or two cups of coffee with my organic valley french vanilla half and half. That was of course nixed and I had two cups of TAZO REFRESH tea. As long as I didn’t focus on my headache I was ok but once I thought about it for any amount of time I was miserable! I did make it to the end of my day with no coffee and no Spark! Argh that was tough. I was good in regards to eating. I posted a picture of my snack yesterday. Lunch consisted of sirloin, spaghetti squash and some asparagus. My afternoon snack was similar to the morning. So all in all, SUCCESS. Dinner was a social night out with some ladies from the BOOM Box! Why I didn’t time this DETOX out better I don’t know, hahahah, but I was good. I had some quacamole and a fajita salad that consisted of steak and chicken fajita meat, leafy green lettuces, tomatoes, avocado, green chiles and I used salsa for my dressing. All in all my day fared well. With the exception of my annoying headache I felt a little more tired than normal but it was manageable.

Sidenote: Why is it that EVEN though I don’t eat the junky foods that I NOTICE the junky foods everywhere. I haven’t had an Oreo in 8 months or longer but I see a kid on Nurse Jackie eating them and I’m all YUMMM OREOs like Homer Simpson or something. Seriously man what is wrong with me! It’s mental, I’m mental. I did not go out and gorge myself on Oreo’s but it didn’t sound like a bad idea! hahahah.

As always I slept very well! But I did wake up starving and a creeping headache. After I showered I felt much better, ate a green tipped banana and half a chicken breast. My snack mid morning was a handful of cherry tomatoes, half chicken breast (left over from breakfast), two hardboiled eggs and 1 piece of uncured bacon. Lunch will be yesterday’s leftovers and mid afternoon snack will be similar to yesterdays snacks. I really miss my fruit! I really really do! More REFRESH tea to fill in the VOID. It’s a mint tea so it’s nice and truly refreshing! LOL.

Not sure on dinner, we have baseball practice and that sucks up a lot of time. I’m a little sluggish right now, hopefully by next week all of this sugar withdrawl will be gone. It just a little over a day it has taken a small toll on me. Nothing MAJOR but enough for me to notice.

Snooze + Infinity!

Holy cow I did not want to get up this morning. Knowing Wednesday has become my rest day, I still wanted to get up and get the kids some almond flour pancakes going. I however slept in till the last possible minute I could possibly sleep and still get ready and get to work on time. I really could have slept a few more hours. I wanted to badly, so much I was ready to call in sick or something! LOL. I didn’t though and I rushed around like a maniac! Fortunately my kids are old enough to fend for themselves and even help their slacker mom out.

Obviously not my kids but I'm sure they feel like this when I'm running late!

Speaking of slacker and since I don’t have much to report, here are some interweb stumblings I thought I’d share 🙂 And then I have treats to share as well!

With that said, I found some before and afters of random strangers to hopefully motivate anyone into pushing themselves outsided their comfort zones!

N0w that you have inspiration to LOSE weight I will tempt you with PALEO-ish goodies! Ha, I’m cruel like that. It’s true I have a sweet tooth and I have kids that I like to share my sweet tooth with. Now I can be really good and just go without but I like to provide some sort of treat during Christmas and Valentines and maybe even a little bit at the end of the school year. I’ve always provided some homemade treat and I’m trying to cut out the glutens, processed crap and whatever else there is to making desserts. It’s hard, as we aren’t meant to consume junk, but it’s so easy to make and buy. But I am trying and that is why I have treats on the brain. Earlier I made those yummo NO BAKE treats and they were a hit. So I found these PALEO-ish treats from Paleo Parents. And I was hesitant at first because I’m a choco-junkie but they are DELICIOUS! And definitely fall under the DON’T MAKE EVERYDAY list! Only cause I’ll eat them till I explode.

SNICKERDOODLE WHOOPIE PIES

Ready to Mix and Bake 🙂

Ready to Bake

Finished Snickerdoodle Cookie

Snickerdoodle Whoopie Pie

There ya have it… A good treat but not an everyday treat. I have a couple more recipes to try out before Valentine’s Day then I’ll probably go on a sweet treat hiatus. I need to get back to eating with less sugar in my life 🙂 But I’ll definitely be trying to whip up some good savory meals!

Happy Wednesday Folks! I’m glad it’s my rest day today… I NEED IT. I hope you are getting your rest in as well!

Buddy the Elf… What’s your Favorite Color?

Thursday is for REST!

Heheh, I couldn’t think of a “good” title so I quoted one of my favorite Christmas movies! Happy Thursday! Christmas is really almost here – FOR REAL. Just a few more days and I’m still not ready! Talk about procrastinating. Not one present is wrapped. I’m sure the kids are wondering what the heck, hahaha. Ah well. It’ll be fine when it actually gets here! I’m just a slacker of a mother! They know me well enough to know I wouldn’t let them down on Christmas!!! Thank goodness they aren’t little and thank goodness I never knew about Elf on a Shelf! Geez having one of those would probably have made me lose my mind by now. I’m just happy we are almost done with the Tooth Fairy. She’s a lazy one!

So onto ME cause what’s better than talking about Me? Hahahah, I’m not that self centered. Just on the verge. Hell I started a blog to talk about me, maybe I am that interested in me. Anyways. Moving on! I got my 2nd EARLY Christmas present last night and ooooo weeeeee it’s a good one! A Cuisinart 12 cup Food Processor! Ya Buddy! It comes with a 4 cup bowl too! I’ve been using this itty bitty chopper/grinder to get my stuff chopped and cut up with and it was good because it helped but it’s so small I could only do a little bit at a time. I have a family of 5 to cook for and all boys so you can only imagine how little it helped! NOW I have the deluxe model that will process ANYTHING and in large amounts! It can’t get any better than that 🙂 But wait there’s MORE … now Ernie says he’ll be able to help me with dinner! WTH? That’s what the processor is for…to help me expedite the chopping and the mincing and the shredding of foods. And NOW he wants to help! I was like sooooo helping before was not an option? And now you’re ready to jump on board?!? Hahahha. Seriously…He’s great when it comes to the grill, so this isn’t Ernie bashing day. He did get me my new prize after all but I find it rather funny that he now wants to help with dinner. MEN!?!

Early Christmas - Excuse the messy cluttered kitchen! I've been busy!

So now hopefully I’ll be making my own nut butters, nut flours, and anything else I can get done with my beast of a machine. Or maybe it will be Ernie figuring it all out! I’ll keep you posted on how long his enthusiasm lasts 🙂

Thursday = REST DAY (at least it’s become that way lately)
No workout today but I did finish my cakeball frenzy… THANK GOODNESS! Here is the last of them – Chocoloate Mint, Butter Cake, Red Velvet and Brownie! I do have a mini frenzy scheduled for this weekend but it will only be a fraction of the 600 I made this week!

Yummy! One day I will take pretty pictures.... ONE DAY!

Short blog today. Good? Bad? Who knows, just keep reading. I’m here Monday through Friday ladies and gentlemen trying to bring you some form of knowledge, entertainment, etc… Please come back and tell your friends as well.

Rest and Rambling

What I Felt Like This Morning!

Happy December EVERYONE!

Well I woke up this morning to work out NO PROBLEM, but my body was one big ache so I said to myself that this was a sign I needed a DAY O’ REST! Yes I’m human. I’m not a robot or super hero with super hero strength and powers. But ya never know I may try to squeeze something in later this evening. Doubtful but there’s always that option.

If you know me, I tend to ramble. I can be quick and to the point sometimes but a lot of times I have to much to say even though it’s typically useless information. I am the best at storing that kind of info. So I’ll try to keep it short. Besides the foods and the workouts I’m not sure how I will utilize this blog. I don’t want to get to out of control but hey life gets out of control sometimes and maybe I will too!

No segue here cause I really don’t know what would best fit so there you have it. And I want to stay current and not waste my time trying to be proper when my brain is failing me.

Last night the kids had eaten at my dad’s house so Ernie and I decided to hit up the Outback where I enjoyed a 6 oz sirloin with a salad (no croutons or cheese) and sweet potato fries… SEE I’m human again. And you may think oh wow..she partook in the eating of SWEET POTATO fries … big whoop! Well, they were a little over cooked… which we still ate by the way but our waitress brought us more cause she felt bad and when I say MORE I mean 4 more orders of them! Are you kidding me?!? NO she wasn’t…. and we sure as hell did eat every last one of them. And it was all yummy! And there were no dishes for me to clean. Which means I don’t have leftovers for lunch but I had a plan! I cooked the ground beef I had out for dinner this morning and take some some fruit and veggies! Woohooo, I saved my lunch 🙂

Now you know I don’t run a PERFECT ship over here. I have my faults and I have my weaknesses. I just try to stay within good boundaries.

Since it’s a DAY O’ REST I have no WODs, workouts or anything fun to share. I do plan on making some sort of ground beef soup/stew this evening. I also found a recipe for a paleo muffin using coconut flour that I may try out …. so there is something to look forward to..hahaha, that is if you are actually looking that far ahead. I barely have a plan a few hours ahead much less a whole day or more.

Have a Fantabulous Thursday!

P.S. Yes Jonas fantabulous is a word in my dictionary!