suck

Rest (too much), Eat (too much), Suck (a lot)

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It’s meeeee and I’m not happy to say I’m Baaacckkk. So I was on the down-low for the past three days resting up a SELF DIAGNOSED strained groin muscle. From what the interwebs told me it was my ADDUCTOR muscles and ya not sure which one specifically but it hurt like a MOFO! I briefly mentioned it on my Monday post and low and behold Tuesday it kind of sucked to walk. By Wednesday it was still tender and still hurt but getting better. By Thursday it was just a lil painful to touch but nothing crazy. This morning it seemed fine until we did this wall stretch – where you lay on the ground, scoot your butt up against a wall and place your feet in a squat position on the wall. Let the tightness begin. Boy that hurt.

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13.3 CrossFit Games Open

 

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13.3 has come and it’s a repeat workout from last year. The dreaded 12.4: 12 minute AMRAP of 150 Wall Balls, 90 Double Unders and 30 Muscle Ups. I really just want to say I SUCKED. I QUIT. I QUIT CROSSFIT. THE END. But you all should by now I’m not a quitter. I just excel at the suckfest.

Let me put this in perspective. IF YOU ARE A SUPER ELITE ATLHETE, you will get into a 2nd round. Even if you are a SUPER ELITE ATHLETE  you may not get through one round. So here I am very NOT SO ELITE, just trying to survive!

As you the people should know I don’t do well at the Wall Balls. They are miserable evil things. And mentally I came into the box in a bad shape. It doesn’t help that I’ve had 3 days off and have stuffed my face repeatedly. The upside to having 3 days off is that my shoulders weren’t dead and my hips weren’t dead. The downside to having 3 days off and eating poorly is that I have no will/want to/drive, etc. To be honest I wasn’t even SMOKED at the end of the workout. I was tired and breathing heavy but nowhere near exhaustion. I was just pissed. I wasn’t getting in good sets. I wasn’t doing anything worth a damn.

3/22/13 WOD

3/22/13 WOD

To top it off I did worse than I did a month ago when it showed up on the whiteboard (133 reps). And to drive the knife in a little further I did worse than I did last year (120 reps). Total: 110 reps. YUP. BAD. OH SO BAD.

Now the question is to REDO or NOT to REDO. sigh. double sigh. It’s just for fun right? It’s not going to catapult me into some top place but for my own sanity and to prove that I really don’t suck that bad, I want a do-over. We’ll see how I feel as the day goes on.

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On the UPSIDE. 6am class KILLED it! Way to go Ladies and Gents. Mostly the ladies who are signed up for the OPEN. They all got the 150 and some even got into the Double Unders! BRAVO! Y’all are an inspiration 🙂

It’s the weekend folks. Another baseball-fun-filled weekend ahead. And maybe a do-over on 13.3. Gotta get out of this funk. Send AWESOME thoughts my way cause I need them! Have a fabulous weekend and be so AWESOME that it hurts!

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I’m Baaaaccckkkkk!

Even though I kind of sort of don’t want to be back! Is that bad? Being off for over 2 weeks is definitely sucky and now a big NO NO in my book. But dang I’ve slept in for 2 weeks straight! Hopefully I don’t ever have this long of a break again. I believe in rest I really do but this long just makes me feel so mentally defeated. My apologies to all of you who actually take the time to read my long and rambling posts. I’m sorry I’ve been away. And I also apologize to all you bloggers I follow regularly. There has been ZERO blog reading on my end. I plan to catch up and check in with you all. Please know I have not abandoned you!

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Let me recap for you how it all went down. Arlington Thunder Jr. Pee Wee football earned their way into the National Championships. My middle kiddo plays with this team. This was HUGE and an amazing accomplishment. So we travel to Florida.

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We stay in itty bitty rooms with no microwaves, kitchen, NO MONEY, etc. Fortunately we knew this ahead of time, so we packed our own microwave. Our first night in we are starving and the trailer carrying all of our stuff is still in route, so after we order in room service pizza costing us $60 we knew we had to make it to Wally World ASAP. Being on limited time, money and limited cooking capabilities we went all out on the easy to eat, junk food junkie route. I’ve never eaten so many PB&J sandwiches in my life. Add hot dogs, cheap ass burritos and a shit ton of cookies and chips and we’re good. We also ate your basic fruits – apples, bananas and clementines but really what are those going to do for us?!? Clearly our dietary habits were going to hell in a handbasket. With the way the scheduling of practice, games and study hall we didn’t have time to hit up a very close and nearby box, so there goes any WORKOUT. I mean we could have done something around the hotel….but we DID NOT! Hopefully walking around all the Disney parks helped out a little… but I can feel my waist, hips and legs expanding and at a very fast rate. Two days before heading home, I get slammed with the ugliest stomach virus I’ve ever had. It was bad. And it didn’t help that I didn’t have anything resembling nutrition coursing through my body. I was pretty much dead for 1 1/2 days. I truly thought it was food poisoning but turns out I was wrong as my youngest son proved that while we were in the airplane flying home! I felt really bad for the poor soul that had to sit in the same row as him. Fortunately we were close to landing when his sickness kicked in. Unfortunately it was a domino effect and all but 1 of us got the virus. I’ll spare you the disgusting details but it took me until end of last week to really feel BETTER in general. What hasn’t been helping is that I still haven’t really given my body the proper nutrition that it needs. Paleo? what’s that? Hahah, we are so far removed from paleo right now it’s not even remotely funny.

So here I sit in my doom and gloom of my own little world feeling fat and worthless. And please believe me when I say that I KNOW there is no DOOM and GLOOM. In light of what happened on Friday, I KNOW my world is great and life is good. Please know this is my creative outlet, for fun, for shits and giggles, for griping. Not for exacerbating my already heartbroken feelings of what happened in CT. I’ve shed many tears over the tragedy and am sure to shed more. But for now, I keep true to my silly adventure that I share with you all regularly.

11/17/12 WOD
I seriously almost didn’t get up AGAIN for the BOOM Box. I knew I had to get back in it whether I thought I was ready or not. It was very apparent I was not ready this morning! When the warm up is kicking your ass, you know you have problems.

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Skill/Strength: Back Squat 4 x 8 @ 77.5% of 1RM
Did I mention it sucked getting back at it already? Hahah. Just in case you didn’t catch that earlier, let me say it again. THIS SUCKED! Just warming up with no weight was a butt whoopin. I didn’t even get close to the 77.5% for 8 reps. That number should have been 110 or 115lbs. I couldn’t even complete 8 reps at 105lbs! I ended up doing really really light weight at 85lbs. At least I could finish the reps out. The internal defeat was now sinking in BAD!

MetCon: Grace
I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna! Can I go home now? That’s all I could think. RX is 95lbs and for some reason I thought I did RX at B4B in October but looking back, I only did 85lbs. Either way, this morning I did 75lbs and it took me longer this morning than it did in Oct. Just put me out of my misery now! I quit! Time: 6:32! I will say even though I was dragging ass. I feel that I jerked the bar better than EVER! Coach you would be proud. Well of that only. Good thing Grant is on vacation I could already feel his eyes a disappointment and he wasn’t even there. Travis is much more tolerant of my cry baby behavior!

So I ended my return WOD with “hopefully I show up tomorrow.” My hips already feel the squats and I’m sure by tonight I’ll be filled with achy-ness. I need to get back on the AWESOME train ASAP! I hope in my absence you all have continued with the awesomeness. I need to catch up! Have a blessed day! Love your peoples and tell them you love them! And Be AWESOME while doing it!

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CrossFit-iversary–BOOM!

Awww man, It’s been a year since I started drinking the Kool-Aid! It was at Europa last year that I was exposed to this insanity we call CrossFit in person, face to face with athletes competing. It was then that Ernie had already had his taste for only a week or two. It was then that I met Grant for the first time. It was then that I said I would give CrossFit a chance. August 23, 2011 was actually my first get my butt up outta bed at 4:30 am for my first 5 am workout! And I haven’t stopped since. I’ve been dedicated and determined! With the exception of sleeping in once, being sick for a week, and then one day recently being sickly I have not missed a beat. Ya I’ll give myself a GOLD STAR for that! I can’t pat myself on the back though for my performance on all of those days because some days I just didn’t bring it or sometimes I felt like dying but I have shown up day in an day out.

Thanks again Grant and all the BOOM Boxers for being there, being supportive and being good friends!

I seriously could write a lot about this past year and well I guess I pretty much have with this blog. I had only wished I had actually started blogging when I ACTUALLY started CrossFit but alas I did not. So let the tears of happiness dry out and let me get to the nitty gritty of this morning – it’s not pretty!

Skill/Strength: TABATA Strict Pull Ups and Push Ups. I still don’t have a pullup so I busted out the GREEN and BLUE band. Started off strong and I guess too strong because Coach had me let go of the blue band. I sucked with the green only so I went back to both. Next time I MUST start with GREEN only then get the blue band assistance if needed. I’m not complaining because I know this is a necessary EVIL. How is one to master pull ups if one is not trying harder? This grasshopper will learn. Either way, this morning PULLUPS were NO BUENO.

After the 8 rounds of Pull Ups we moved to 8 rounds of Hand Release Push Ups. Again you start off really strong and by the end you are wanting to CRY. TABATA is no joke. It will kick your ass, give you a break and KICK YOUR ASS some more. For those of you new to the term TABATA I can tell you that you do work for 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds. You do this for 8 rounds which is 4 minutes. The idea behind it is that you’ll do more work in the 4 minutes this way than if you went “hardcore” for 4 minutes without a break. That’s all I know. Oh ya besides that it will KICK YOUR ASS.

8/24/12 WOD

MetCon: Oh ya there was still a MetCon, I was already ready to go home! 5 rounds of 15 Power Cleans in ONE minute followed by ONE minute Rest. RX 95lbs, MY weight 85lbs then dropped to 75lbs. SIGH. I warmed up, worked my way up to 85lbs, did 3 reps, it felt good. I knew 95 would hurt and I probably wouldn’t get 15 reps in one minute. So 85 lbs for me. I almost forgot to mention that if you FAIL and don’t get the 15 reps you get to run 800m. I did not want to fail! Well as life would have it, I busted out 5 reps fairly ok and then it went downhill from there. I can’t recall 100% but I think I got 9 or 10. That’s ONE 800m run waiting for me. Coach asked me if I got this at the 85lbs. I assured him I did. I got to the bar and did 5 again and although I was a little better in the next 5 it ended up only being 10 AGAIN! I was not a happy camper. I wanted it so bad to get the damn bar up and I just FAILED! So Coach had me drop to 75lbs. So finally I get my 15 reps within the minute. WOOHOOO. I’m good, so far I only owe 1 mile in running. UNTIL I FAILED at the next TWO rounds :/ I got 13 and 11 for those last two rounds. I just sucked. That’s all there is to it. I changed out of my OLY shoes, put my runnin shoes on and said see y’all tomorrow, ha, 2 MILES! I hate running as many of you know. I didn’t even time myself. I did the penalty work and that’s all I can say for myself. Big disappointment after my DIG DEEP, STEP IT UP, TRAIN ISN’T STOPPING talk. Let’s just say there was a cow on the tracks, the train took a break. It’ll pick back up!

It’s the WEEKEND! If you’re in Arlington come on out to the BOOM Box tomorrow, Saturday, 8/25, at 9 am! Come play with us at the Community WOD. It’s always fun! If you’re not in Arlington the FIND a box that does FREE FUN SATURDAYS! or just go the park and play! Have an INSANE weekend. Enjoy LIFE! BE AWESOME!

Big Ol’ Week of Suck!

So I lied about the debbie downer talk getting to me! This week had been hard for me mentally and physically. I am not sure why. Just finally wearing down? Job getting in my head? A little bit of both? NO clue as to what exactly but I’m sure it’s a little of everything. The week isn’t over just yet so I have a day left to redeem myself!

I understand I can’t be “ON” everyday and every week but it’s hard when your whole week has been blah. Alright enough complaining and onto the WOD!

2/2/12 WOD

We worked on Power Jerks and I just couldn’t get my body to get under the bar. Every time I was trying to muscle it up. ON my last attempt I FINALLY did it properly! I know how to do it but for some reason I just wasn’t getting anywhere. The weight wasn’t too heavy, just me being in my head like a loser 😦

The MetCon was Toes to Bar and running. WOOOO Fun! LOL! I can do toes to bar but not well enough to knock it out in a WOD so I did knees to elbows. It’s really hard for me to get in a good rhythm but I did find myself knocking out 5 at a time. It definitely shows that I need to work on my upper body movements because I am no GOOD! Between the barbell pushups and the knees to elbow I have just been beaten down. Hopefully this just means I’m getting better. I just don’t see it right now. I suppose I used to not even be able to do knees to elbows, haha, so I should be stoked! I am! I truly am. I’ve come a long way. But my suck ass attitude is getting in the way.

As I sit here typing this I realize WOW you are such a girl baby! Put on your damn big girl panties and STFU! Really Stephanie! So rather than edit, abort and do over, I’m leaving this as is so I can remind myself of what I sound like and hopefully refrain from such depressing mindset. And also hopefully some of you will be motivated to not SOUND like me! Rise above people! Don’t come down to my level!

Here’s hopin to a FANTABULOUS FRIDAY. Rock on.

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!

Death by Power Clean on Friday the 13th!

1/13/12 WOD

It was a dreadful sight on the board but it had to be done! Grant asked us what we were thinking in regards to how far we’ll get and I just couldn’t manage a number in my head but eventually I blurted out 12. Then after I did blurt it out I mentally changed it to 13 since it’s the 13th. And to try and push past my initial blurted out goal. Getting up to the 10th round I was still feeling pretty good. Tired but good. Then the 11th round hit and dang I was zapped of all energies and I made the major mistake of dropping the bar. Boy was that the wrong thing to do! I made it through 12 rounds and got to 8 reps on the 13th attempt but Major Fail. I lost strength fast. But at 70lbs not too bad I suppose.

For those of you that don’t know what DEATH BY (Insert any movement) means I’ll explain it a little bit. You take the movement, it could be sprints, deadlifts, pushups and in our instance POWER CLEANS and do 1 for every minute that passes and add reps to match the minute. So in the first minute you do 1. Rest till minute 2 starts and then you do 2. Rest till minute 3 and do 3 reps. You do this until you can not complete the number of reps that correspond to the minute you are on. So I made it to 13 minutes but didn’t complete the 13 therefore I only count that I completed 12. Make sense? I hope so. It’s tough. You think this is easy – I GOT THIS, until you’re on your 50th rep overall and you want to DIE! Hahah, fortunately we don’t die and we push past our limits. It always feels so good to be done and to know I have done something. I am strong!

I really don’t want to talk about SNATCH BALANCE cause we are truly not friends. But I’ll say my peace and move on. Snatch is a movement that takes a lot of thought but I’m the kind of person that just needs to “DO” and not think because I’m an overthinker (legit word? eh I don’t care). So you give me a movement where you are forced to think of all the form it takes and all the little things that go into it and my brain can’t HANDLE it! I suck at SNATCH. I do not like it, it’s not a natural movement, and other people make it look so easy. Just DROP under the bar. THAT’s IT…. SIMPLE. Not for me and guess what? I made it a goal to not fear it. What a stupid stupid goal to make! I hope this year I can actually overcome it but I’m not feeling it at all. Maybe it’s just the crappy week I’ve had that brings me to despise it so much. I’m pushing my feelings all into this one lift. Sorry Snatch. One day we’ll be friends, I promise!

I am so freakin glad it’s Friday! The past couple of days have driven me bonkers! I know it’s all meaningless in the scope of life but I’m ready for change! I think subconsciously and consciously…. the impending anniversary of my mom’s death has shaken me. Last year I was pacing up and down hospital hallways with no answers. Hoping, Praying and CRYING my eyeballs out. Lost and confused. Argh, I’m still doing all of those things but for different reasons and I can’t move forward. I’m sure I can move forward but I feel stuck. I NEED CHANGE! Can I get a reset button? a reboot? a do-over? Anything? I know it has to come from within but it’d sure be nice if someone would just throw opportunity into my lap. And it would be nice if I had the foresight to know it was the opportunity that would change my life! I’m afraid that I’ve had to many things cross my path that I’ve never taken advantage of because my mind and whole self was closed to change. But NOW I want–desire CHANGE… REAL CHANGE and I feel like I’m stuck in a boat with one oar. Going in circles.

I know I’m rambling and I realize I say that I’m rambling often and always apologizing for doing it! But it’s what I do. One of my friends made a point to me that this was my therapy and it really is in a way. It’s good to get it out there even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone but me. Maybe you can relate, maybe you can’t. I’m not a super blogger with deep thoughts on politics, environment, world change… etc. I’m just an average citizen, mom, human with a computer. I’m not changing the world one post at a time. But hopefully regardless of my craziness someone is getting encouraged to keep on truckin!

Happy Friday the 13th! TRIVIA NOTE… all months that start on a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th… my 12 year old told me that. Have a good weekend 🙂

Woohoo it’s Wednesday! (and more yummy goodness)

I feel really good today! I think getting back on track eating wise over the past few days has greatly helped me! After the cake ball frenzy before Christmas I continued to eat stocking stuffer candies and what not. I wasn’t too over the top as I was with the pizza and cookies but it was still MORE than I should have consumed in general. And after a couple of days of CLEAN eating I’m already feeling better.

1/04/12 WOD

The BOOM Box did not fail me and I had a great WOD. We worked on kipping and pullups after our warmup. I have the kipping down pretty good considering I suck at pullups. I stole Ernie’s “hand guard” thingies (like the ones gymnasts use) and those helped me out tremendously. I’m such a wussbag when it comes to hanging onto that bar! I’m so close at getting that kipping pullup. I can taste it! I want it so badly but I guess not badly enough to practice at home! Ha! I have to make the effort to work on those at home but I just don’t 😦 So after the kipping practice we had to do 3 sets of 5 strict pullups. I managed to get a few in with just the BLUE band (smallest band there is at our box) then I doubled up blue bands and finished out the reps. It’s hard work but I AM GETTING THERE!

And the MetCon was fantastic! Did I just say it was fantastic? Wow I may have suffered a blow to the head and I don’t recall! With the exception of a few NO REPS on my wall balls, I think I did well. Did I tell you I despise wall balls? Did I also tell you they are my enemy? Hehehe, Yes I know I did, I just wanted to make sure you’re following along! So 7 rounds of 7 wall balls, 7 ring rows and 200m run on rounds 2, 4 and 6. The fatigue really kicked in after the second run. Not sure if it was the cold air in my lungs that was bringing me down or just overall loss in arm strength. Round 6 was weak, but I finished strong in round 7 for an overall finish of 8:45.

Last night Ernie started his new 7pm Box time versus waking up early and being miserable….so I had some time to myself to play with my food processor and get dinner going. The shredding disc on my processor is AMAZING! In no time I had shredded zucchini and carrots! And I loved it. The kids were rather impressed as well! Now that I have shredding down, the plan was to make faux latkes and that is what I did. They fell apart a little too easy so next time I will add more egg to hold them together. I used grapeseed oil to cook them in and the taste was nice. Not sure how “paleo” grapeseed oil is because I haven’t done much research. It’s in several recipes I used but like you know by now there are varying lines of thought on “paleo”. Overall they came out great! Along with my latkes I baked some chicken and steamed a little broccoli. A nice light dinner 🙂

Dinner and testing out "latkes"

I’m a blog troll who randomly finds recipes from oddball places but I found this following recipe from Paleo Parents. I troll their blog regularly and like them on Facebook so this recipe “glowed” at me. And I knew I had to try it out.

A new treat Chocolate Banana Bites!

Dark Chocolate Banana Bites

2 bananas
5 eggs
3/4 C coconut oil
1/2 C maple syrup, we recommend Grade B
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 C almond flour (or coconut flour if you’re nut-free)
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 Tbsp cinnamon

1/2 C dark chocolate chips

Using an electric mixer or food processor, combine all of the wet ingredients (bananas should smooth out)
♥ In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips
While mixing on low, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until just combined
♥ Sir in chocolate chips to the dough
♥ Using a silicon mini muffin pan or mini muffin liners on a metal pan, scoop the dough until almost full into mini muffin pans
Cook at 350 for 10 minutes

Makes 4 dozen; store chilled and let come to room temperature before serving or eating. This is a super easy recipe and perfect for letting kids help (♥)!

I had a super mini muffin pan and I felt like these just weren’t very pretty but they tasted just fine! I also have a 6 count mini muffin silicone pan that I have never used and it ended up being just perfect! I had to cook those a little longer, closer to 20 minutes but truly I don’t recall. I watched them for a while but I just don’t remember the exact timing. My apologies for being a slacker. A win from the kids and a SUPER WIN from Ernie as he devoured many of the super mini bites!

I’m glad I have another “treat” in my bag of recipes.

I hope y’all have a great day. See ya tomorrow! Woooooohooooo!

WALL BALLS are my ENEMY

See the snowman with the med ball? that's me!

Seriously. Wall balls, don’t underestimate them. I didn’t even do that many but I despise them more than ever. Maybe cause I wasn’t feeling 100% or maybe cause I just suck at them in general. I think it’s the latter of the two but if I can throw in some sort of excuse then I will cause I’m lame like that!

NOTE: I am no where NEAR built like the girl in this picture.. maybe one day I will be

I did more pullups than I did wall balls… there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with that picture because I SUCK at PULLUPS too! I’m so mad at myself for doing so poorly today. REALLY REALLY just down about it. You have no idea. People bust out a lot of reps in 90 sec and I could barely do 15. Are you kidding me? All you have to do is get that damn medicine ball up and back down. Moving on I suppose. I think I’ve said WALL BALL enough times for you to want to poke your eyeballs out.

WOD 12/21/11

On a good note, I did 4 reps of my max shoulder PRESS today. WOOOOO. A whopping 65lbs! Have I told y’all I’m a wuss and only 4 months into this thing we call CrossFit? It’s true. One day I will be super strong and awesome but for now I’m just aspiring for that 🙂

As far as food goes, “DAY 2, EZEKIEL BREAD FREE!” … still staying on track although I think I taste tested too much batter from the cake balls. Not a good feeling in my belly but it’s like I couldn’t help myself. I guess it’s a wash for not having ezekiel bread 😦 Probably worse, who am I kidding? NOT YOU and surely NOT ME. I have not however had a cake ball if that helps! I make the kids try them out before I send them out to the public.

Hang in there kiddos… It’s already Wednesday. Before you know it it will be 2012!