So clearly I’ve gotten off the bandwagon of going to Crossfit every single day. I’m finding it difficult to get back into my Crossfit on a daily basis routine, only because I’ve been monumentally sore after each workout, which is, essentially, my own fault, because I’m NOT GOING AS FREQUENTLY. My own fault. This will change! 🙂

I also forget that my BCAAs are as helpful as they are, and then I don’t take them, and then I get more sore.

All this is only motivation to go more, and try harder though! I’ve built my healthy lifestyle around this, and it’s actually been really eye opening to take a step back and analyze my progress, my injuries (minor as they are, they can hinder things), and my strengths and weaknesses.

Since being sick, I’ve taken the biggest breaks that I’ve ever taken since I started a year and a half ago. With my CF Total Control anniversary coming up in a couple weeks though, I want to be back into my regular awesome mode, so this means I start tomorrow. 🙂  Does that mean I start tomorrow morning at 7a?? Ehhhhhhh maybe. I guess the only way to get back into it is just to do it, right? And it’s a HELL of a workout tomorrow too! But that’s a story for AFTER it happens..

Crossfit Day 253 was Bring a Friend Day and it was great!! Totally my kind of workout.

3RFT
Partner WOD, Each partner works for 1 min on one movement, and then switches to the next.

Station 1: Ring Rows and Push Ups (then rotate)
Station 2: Box Jumps and Jumping lunges (then Rotate)
Station 3: Ball Slams and KB Swings (then rotate)
1 min rest

REPEAT!

I LOVED it. It was so hard, but it was all doable! It’s the kind of workout I love, because I know I can do it all, and RX it, and give it my best shot, and it’ll still kick my ass. It’s not a defeating workout.

So yeah.. there are a few things I’d like to talk about.

Bring a friend day was awesome last week, totally my kind of workout awesome. Box jumps, kettlebells, push ups, jumping lunges, I was all over that!

Yes, I brought a friend, she hated me for it. She WANTED to go.. was dying to check it out, even asked when she could come with me next to try it out. She did a complete 180 halfway through the warm up. She finished like a superstar, and even wanted to go running afterwards, but during the workout, she was not a happy camper! 

Because of the way one thing leads to another in this head of mine, I started thinking about this a little more in depth. How people want to come in and try it, and then they’re like OMG this isn’t what I expected!!! after it’s all over. So you know what I want to say??

Guess what, kids? Crossfit’s fucking hard. It’s not easy. What I’ve done and accomplished here, this shit’s not easy. It’s not puppies and flowers. It’s not a walk in the park, it’s not a pontoon boat ride around on the intracoastal. Nope.  I am honestly annoyed that people think that what I’ve done was done with little to no effort. It’s insulting. You don’t completely transform your life, body and by taking an aerobics class, at least I don’t. You don’t fix your health problems, put on a shit ton of muscle, tone up, drop weight, and get smaller by eating Panera, cookies, cakes, and pasta, or by going for a brisk walk in the evening. No. Sorry. It doesn’t work that way.

You want to change? You want to become a stronger and healthier, more competent person? Then guess what? You have to put in the blood (a little), sweat (a LOT), and tears (some here and there) and make it happen. You stop eating garbage, processed foods, crap, sugar, candies, cakes, pies, sodas. You make the fucking effort to change your life, and you stick with it.  And guess what?? IT WORKS! Not overnight, not in a few days, but over the course of weeks, months, years.

I’m tired of people asking me what I do, how I’ve done it, what it took to get to where I’m at today, and then when I tell them, they respond with “OMG I COULD NEVER DO THAT! I couldn’t give up this or that, or OMG I was born to eat loaves of french bread, I could never stop eating BREAD!”

(really?? come on..)

It’s like, well I didn’t take some magic pill, asshole.  When I get those responses, I take it as those people belittling my efforts, undermining what REALLY goes into a lifestyle change. Yes, I judge. I keep it to myself most of the time now, because it’s just better that way, but yeah. If you want to change, you have to commit to change! You want drastic results? You’d better make some drastic changes! Yes, it can take time to get used to it, it will take time to start seeing results, but if you don’t commit to making these positive changes in your life for the better, then what do you expect???

So yeah. There’s my rant. I’ll feel slightly guilty if you’re offended, but I’m not sorry. Crossfit is clearly not for everyone. But if you want to make a life change, and do something fucking INCREDIBLE and empowering, then I strongly recommend trying it for a month, and changing your diet as well. Do a clean sweep and give it a shot. But don’t ever go in thinking it’s easy. And if you DO think it’s easy, then you’re probably doing it wrong.

I did what you’re supposed to do on Open Gym Sunday… I practiced on shit I wasn’t good at.. and guess what? I FUCKING GOT MY DOUBLE UNDERS! I was ecstatic! Jumping for joy like a moron, after doing 10 or 15 DUs at a time, and I did it over and over and over. Of course when I went to go show people yesterday (2 days later) the most I could do was 3 or 4, but STILL, I ended up getting 25 DUs in a row, like it was just no big deal. SO COOL!

I attribute my success to my awesome jump rope, made by www.RXJumpRopes.com and the awesome thin cables they offer. I went from the giant 3.4 cable to the tiny 1.3 cable, and that’s where I noticed the difference. It took me a couple times of working with it (I couldn’t even do singles with the thin cable) and I was so frustrated! I finally got it out again a couple weeks later and tried again, and that’s when I got it.

I have the Kona Coral handles, and the Neon Pink 1.3 cable. Wooo!! I love it. I love it so much I want to buy another one. 😀

I redid my Hero JT WOD today.. we had done it back in December, but one thing that’s cool about today, I actually got my kipping handstand push ups down!! I’ve been just lowering myself a little bit to where my head touches the mat, but TODAY.. I actually went ALL the way down and kipped back up. WEE!! I was so excited!! Then I did it 3 more times! Very cool, very proud. 🙂

Because I actually did quite a few kipping HSPUs in the WOD, my score was slower than it was last time, but that’s okay. I still felt pretty good about it! Today I finished in 14:27, whereas last time I finished in 11:23. Again though, I did several real HSPUs.. So cool!!

I’ve been sore since Sunday, but I’m feeling better now. We also spent a couple hours over at TPC Sawgrass for the practice rounds. After 3 years of living here, this was the first time I’ve been able to go and watch and check it out. 🙂

Dave and Me at TPC Sawgrass. 🙂

No drinking today on this glorious Cinco de Mayo! Today was the first day of sunshine all week.. it rained and rained and everyone in the area was miserable from cabin fever. Not sure how we ever endured living in North Carolina for those 13 long months! My god..

Anyway, it was BEAUTIFUL today and I was feeling pretty awesome when we woke up this morning. I knew there would be Open Gym, so I headed in around 10a, with the intentions of doing Fight Gone Bad, and hopefully not alone!

My previous score was 211, and that was from last year. Today I got 218. I had mis-counted and thought it was 238, because I added 10 by mistake to my last two rounds. Fortunately though, my two FGB buddies were right in sync with me, pretty much, so I was like yeah.. there’s no way I got 238. There’s no way I went faster than you guys on my reps! I wouldn’t have felt good about it had I not said anything.

Fight Gone Bad is:

3 Rounds
1 min of work for each of the following movements (this is the order we did them in)

SDLHP (55lbs)
box jumps (20″)
push press (55lbs)
calorie row
wall balls (16lb)

1 min of rest

(repeat 2 more times)

I had a massage at 1p, and was going to go back and do FGB again later on, but Tom, my coach, suggested against working out crazily after a massage. Considering I hadn’t done a WOD since LAST Friday, it was probably a good idea that I didn’t do it again. 🙂

Me tonight. Feeling exceptionally satisfied with myself.

I was thrilled with this picture tonight.. I was leaning on the counter, talking to Dave, and I looked over in the mirror to my right. I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t repulsed, or that I didn’t instantly shift into a position that I was comfortable with seeing. Instead, I was like, oh wow.. I have my arm squished into my side and it doesn’t look ginormous! (by my standards.) It was just really nice to look at myself and not contort into an unnatural position that I would’ve felt happier with. That doesnt happen very often (being happy with my appearance without posing..)

Searching for Paleo recipes on Pinterest at 11:30p was NOT a good idea… Oh man..

http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=paleo

Aside from the fact that I’m now hungry.. the paleo brownies made with almond butter and cocoa powder sound delicious, as do the cauliflower tortillas, and paleo pumpkin pancakes!

And now I shall go to bed hungry. 

http://deliciousbydre.com/paleo-pumpkin-protein-pancakes/

http://cookeatpaleo.com/easy-paleo-brownie-recipe/

http://slimpalate.com/cauliflower-tortillas-paleo-grain-free-gluten-free/

I’m already down 3 pounds.. and yeah yeah I know it’s not always about the numbers, but those are important to me too!! I feel good, not bloated, and I don’t feel heavy and full either.

Basically, no starches or sugars, especially after noon! The only sugar I’ll get is from fruit, if I have any in the morning.

Lots of salads, balsamic vinegar.. I know I said I’d have blue cheese dressing but I got smart and looked at the ingredients.  I nearly threw away my freshly made salad. GROSSSSS. first ingredient, soybean oil. Come on, really?? I need to find a better version of it, or just get some bleu cheese crumbles and add it to my salad with balsamic and oil. Sigh.. ITS FOR THE BETTER, I know this.

Vegetables, meat, protein shakes. The only coconut milk I’ve been drinking has been in the morning with my coffee. My protein shakes are only with almond milk, which is about a 3rd of the calories as coconut milk! I’ve been using stevia as a sweetener in my coffee, as well.

I did break down and eat a smidge of what was left of my banana paleo ice cream the other night, but it didn’t affect my weight loss.

Rule of thumb… always have fresh chicken breasts available to cook, or have some already cooked so I can cut them up and throw them into my salad late at night when I’m ready to tear the kitchen apart.

For dinner, we splurged and went to TacoLu, (and really early too, like 5p) which is this super well known Jax Beach restaurant that everyone knows and raves about. Normally, I would’ve gotten corn tortillas, but I opted for lettuce wraps instead last night, and only got one of my tacos with a corn tortilla, for fun. And I only had 3 chips with salsa.

Anyway, I’m documenting this because I think it’s important. And I know others are out there who are doing paleo too, and wondering why the scales won’t budge, or why they don’t look better, or different, or whatever. I haven’t even worked out in a week. I’m curious to see how that will affect me, really. I’m going to go this afternoon, so we’ll see.

It’s SO AWESOME to be disciplined and to feel good about it too.

My awesome friend and former CrossFit trainer, Erin Mouser, and me at Jax Beach last week.

I started to really think about cleaning up my diet even more last week, and kicked it into gear on Monday. Not because it was the beginning of the week, but because with being sick, and talking to my sister Caroline (always a good motivator!) I figured now was as good a time as ever.

When I say clean up my already paleo diet… I mean, hey, let’s eliminate some of these ‘paleo’ starches and sugars, and let’s see what happens.

Today is day 3, and I’m feeling pretty good, (despite being sick, although it’s getting better.)

To give you an example of what I’m doing.. Each day I have my normal awesome breakfast consisting of 3-4 fried/scrambled eggs, with some sort of meat, whether it’s bacon or chicken sausage. A few hours later I know i will be hungry, so I’ve been making a protein shake with almond milk. I’ve been choosing almond milk over coconut milk because it has less calories and carbs, which is just an all around plus for me. Basically about 2-3 cups of almond milk and 2 heaping scoops of my True Nutrition beef protein powder and we’re good to go.

I’ll typically have 2 of these shakes a day. I’ve also been making a package of chicken fillets too, which is two cleaned chicken breast halves. I get the Greenwise ones from Publix and then cover and saute them in olive oil with some adobo seasoning. (Everyone seems to disagree with this cooking method or my additives, I say suck it.) It’s fucking delicious this way!

I’ll save one of the chicken pieces for later and I’ll cut the other one up and mix it in with romaine lettuce. I’ve been going beyond the Paleo walls and enjoying them with bleu cheese dressing. I don’t want oil and vinegar, I don’t want balsamic. Again, piss off. I don’t have dairy any other time, not even in my coffee. And FWIW, I went dairy free for a few months and saw no changes, so.. whatevs.

Dinner last night was crock pot chicken breast with onions, mushrooms, and red potatoes. Dave got the red potatoes, I stuck mostly to the chicken and mushrooms.

The idea behind this is to cut back on my starches and sugar intake, whether it be sweet potatoes or fruit. To eliminate those damned delicious clif bars and other protein bars, and to just go back to the basics. I want to lose more weight and get smaller, and I’ve stayed the same since September, basically. Not good enough for me. I want to feel less bloated and continue to slim down. Gonna try and stick with this. It sucks at night because I want a snack, but I’ve been good and have held out. I even ate 5-6 baby carrot sticks last night instead of finding an unhealthy snack. Good god, look at me, being all responsible and shit.

Gonna try and get back into the gym tonight too.. but I doubt I’ll make it through Angie which is the WOD. I might just go and stretch and do some running. Exciting!

Dave and I have come down with this disgusting shit again, and he can’t blame it on me (well he will, and he has been) because we came down with it on the exact same day, last Thursday. I started with the typical annoying scratchy irritated throat, and he got slammed into it full blown in a matter of a day or two, while mine has just gotten mildly worse over the last few days. Today is the worst, probably, for both of us. Again, it’s disgusting how much mucous we produce and carry around in our lungs. Really gross, I know.

I’m afraid to work out when I’m like this. I feel like a) I’m putting others at risk for getting sick, which is not what I want to do. b) My strength is shit right now, and lifting up the box of oxyclean from Sams Club today was a challenge and c) I’m tired. I don’t know how good working out will REALLY be for me right now.

I’ve been home the last two days just taking it easy. We’ll see how long this lasts this time around. Coffee and acetaminophen seem to help nicely.

Again.. I neglected my blog for the workout posts, because yeah, they get boring, I know!

Briefly.. just for documentation’s sake:

Day 247, 4/22 – This was the Monday after the RAID Games. I felt good, and ready to go in and work out! I knew we had handstand push ups but I figured I would be fine.

My first HSPU was a wake up call. My shoulders were NOT ready for that yet! After the RAID games, I had really overdone it, but I still pushed through my workout. It was the following:

Farmer Carry 50m x 8 (I think I did 4 or 5, and maxed out at 115lbs per hand)
8 min AMRAP 5 HSPU and 10 slam balls (30/20)

I got through 6 rounds + 2.

Day 248 – 4/23 – Tuesday:

We worked on our OHS, which is something I’m not very good at. I did better than I thought though, and got up to 125lbs, which is a 30lb PR for me!

The WOD was:

21-15-9
Pull Ups
OHS 95/65

I finished in 8:57.

Day 249 – 4/25 – Thursday:

My awesome friend and first ever Crossfit coach Erin Mouser flew in today!! I picked her up from the airport, we headed home, changed and went to the gym. It’s so great to work out with her!

We worked on our Bench press today. My previous PR was 145, and I was able to do 145 again today. It was a struggle though! Going to go with my shoulders are still not fully recovered, and it’s not like I gave them a good rest, either.

WOD was:
8 min AMRAP
10 pistols
2 rope climbs
10 push ups

I finished 2 rounds plus 11. Rope climbs are great, but in multiple quantities, they burn me out fast. My hands hurt, my right foot hurts from where I pinch the rope, it’s just not pretty. 🙁

Day 250 – 4/26 – Friday:

Erin and I went in at 10a to work out, which was perfect! We knew we had running to do, and running at 7a just doesn’t sound appealing to this one.

We worked on our handstand skills, which I can only hold for a second or two. Walking is something I’ll need to work on.

The WOD was:
400m Run
30 DUs (60 singles)
400m Run
60 DUs (120 singles
400m Run
80 DUs (160 singles)
400m Run
120 DUs (240 singles)

I did them all.. with singles. Finished last at 21:49 which is frustrating but whatever, I fucking did it. No cherry picking. This is definitely a WOD I wouldve skipped a few months ago, because of all the running.