I kind of feel normal again!!! LOVE IT. Today’s workout was awesome. I was with my girls AND my kids! That is, Anne, Denise, Sally, Nancy, Erin M (our trainer) AND John and Nick and Mitch! Great class, for sure.

Warm ups were lengthy, but good..
10 romanian deadlifts with the bar
10 good mornings (bar)
10 rows (bar)
10 dead roaches (laying on the ground, touching left hand to right toe, and vice versa)
10 walking lunges

Then our WOD today was the following:

3RFT
5 deadlifts (115lbs today.. trying to go easy on my back!)
10 box jumps
50m bear crawls on the PAVEMENT. Not cool.. especially when I slid my hands on the gravel/sand mixture and gave my palms road rash. I started crying, not fun at all.. I went for the alternative exercise after that and did lunges the rest of the way.

Finished in 12:59.

Feels good to be able to work out again. 🙂 Not really sick anymore, and it’s on its way out. YES.

This song is so catchy. At first I thought it was just noise, but man, it grows on you.

I love all my new workout songs!

Well, today marks the last time I bother going to Einstein’s. Something I loved doing for so long, and it wrecked me ALL day today… It’s the first time I’ve had a bagel in 6 weeks, and I was driving there, and thinking, I should be excited about this.. I’ve been planning for this day! It sucked. The bagels, although fresh, just didn’t taste as good as I had remembered. They weren’t as satisfying.. I didn’t even finish the two that I ordered. (unheard of..)

I’ve been gross-feeling and bloated all day.. I’ve drank so much water in an attempt to push it all through, but it hasn’t subsided yet. Erin M. was right. 🙁

Having the trailing edges of this cold messing with me doesn’t help either. Sluggish, tired, achy from a combination of this cold thing plus the walking handstands at yesterday’s workout, shit bagels in my system.. I’m ready to feel better and feel strong again! Good lord. I hope this stuff moves out of my system soon.

Paleo wins.

Whew I’m tired but I feel obligated to write this post..  medicine balls are great, except when you have to run with them.. 5 times.

I sucked at my workout today. My outside ankle tendons were on fire after running with the awkward and bulky med ball around the building a couple times, so I asked if I could run without it.. The answer I got was no, so I opted to walk around the building instead.

My ability to move and function throughout the rest of the week is more important to me than pushing myself through shit that really fucking hurts. And my ankle tendons being on fire and ‘pushing through’ that sort of pain is not going to benefit me. I’ve tried it before while snowboarding, just ignoring it, and it ended with me on the ground crying (not laughing) hysterically while Dave frantically tried to get my boots off as fast as possible. Jesus, that was not fun. Yeah, so I didn’t feel like reliving that. Thankfully, I wasn’t strapped to a snowboard, and thankfully, I’m able to make choices to walk instead. 🙂

What’s crazy is, that 14lb med ball pretty much represents the weight I’ve lost so far, except it was much more evenly distributed, but still. Sort of a cool thing to think about as I lugged it around the building 5 times.

We also had to do KB snatches, which are hard on the wrists, I might add! (sorry, not trying to be all negative nancy here..) and handstand walks across the gym. Good workout.

Doing a beach workout tomorrow with everyone at 9a. Should be interesting. 😀  I hope I’m not getting sick.. Everyone else (at home, and at work) is, and I can feel it coming on. Attempting to fight it with mass doses of Vitamin C, even though some call bullshit on it, and lots of water, and fruits and veggies. We’ll see how that goes.

Tired, peace out, y0.

YAY! After one week, I’m back home, and back in my Crossfit routine! Feels so good! I felt like I was starting all over though, cause it was REALLY hard today. First, the warm up was crazy, almost like a WOD.  We had to do the following for our warm up:

12 min AMRAP
side plank walk each way
10 push ups
10 lunges
5 pull ups (I did the jumping ones on the box)
10 KB swings
5 box dips

I got through 2 rounds and just started my 3rd. Those side plank walk things really get to you!

Our WOD today was 2 rounds of the following:
4 min AMRAP
100 m row (cake)
10 burpees
(I got through 2 rounds plus 100 m row as my best time)

3 min rest

6 min AMRAP
5 renegade rows (these suck, they’re like one handed push ups on weights, sorta.)
10 box jumps (cake)

(I got through 2 rounds plus 5 rows and 2 box jumps for my best time.)

AND THEN WE HAD TO DO IT AGAIN. Not fun.

So I’m ready to start Paleo all over again. I’m making a few changes because I WANT to.. I will eat dairy here and there. I will eat black beans here and there, and for the love of god, I will have a cheat meal once a week. And by cheat meal I don’t mean like, cheesecake factory appetizer, giant entree, and then 3 pieces of cheesecake to finish it all off, I mean like, 2 chocolate chip bagels toasted with honey butter… every Saturday morning, at Einsteins. 😀

I want to compare my efforts of this 30 days to that of the last 30 days. I feel like I ate worse (more fruits, not enough veggies) because I was sooo craving something sweet, but I didn’t want to cheat my diet. Or I’d eat a burger instead of a grilled chicken salad because you can only eat so much balsamic vinegar before wanting to kill yourself. If I could have some bleu cheese dressing instead, I’d have chosen the salad. Make sense?  I also think that by having that one meal where I can not worry about it, I’ll be much more apt to stay on track for the rest of the week.  I’d like to see, regardless. This will be my test. My goal is 10 pounds this month. Last month was 12 lbs of body fat, so we’ll see how it compares.

ALSO.. I got my bloodwork results back AND… (remember, to start, my HDL was 40 and my LDL was 83. Overall, VERY good.. however, my HDL was lower than my doctor would have liked.)

So yeah, I got my blood results back and my HDL went DOWN to 34, and my LDL went down to 80.  The LDL part is good, but the HDL dropping? Not good.  In doing my research, I’ve read that less exercise can cause your HDL levels to drop, BUT I’ve been working my ass off, literally! Not sure why.. maybe because I’m doing more weight training and not nearly as much cardio? (Spin class has totally taken a back seat, as you may know.. and I go maybe once a week now instead of 2-3) but shit, we run and row and do jumping jacks and push ups and all that fun stuff in Crossfit. My HEART is PUMPING, goddamn it.We’re both going in to meet with our doctor on Friday about this.. He’s going to tell me to change my diet, yada yada yada, that this way of eating isn’t good, that there are too many fats, not enough (or any) grains or starches.. I love that he’s attentive to us, but from what we’ve discussed before, we’re not going to agree on how I should be eating, regardless of how it makes me feel.

So I suppose I’ll just have to keep at it, and go again in a month or so, see what happens. Yaay.

This has nothing to do with Crossfit really, but it does have to do with ME, and its my blog, so I’m writing about it.

So I finished my 30 day challenge last week, and with good timing, because we headed for Ultra Music Festival in Miami on Thursday to spend 6 days at the park taking time lapse photography and listening to some damn good music.

Being that I’m half Cuban, and we were across the street from Bayside, and Bayside has a Latin American Cafe in it… I effectively ate Cuban food just about EVERY SINGLE DAY I was in Miami. (Thurs doesn’t count, since we didn’t get in til late..) It was incredible. So.. what did I eat?  Palomilla (sirloin steak), white rice, black beans and maduros (sweet plantains). I had this on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and twice on Monday, haha. (well, the 2nd time Monday was just the steak and rice..) But yeah, it was awesome.

I made it a point to not eat much or any bread if I could help it, since I convinced myself that bread was bad, but some rice was okay, cause it’s not bread. I think I gained like 15 lbs, even though we were on our feet for HOURS each day, constantly walking and setting up new time lapses, and we only ate like 1-2 meals a day. I know, bad.  I supplemented our meals with bananas, sunflower seeds, trail mix, and Naked fruit juices, and a shit ton of water. We went through a case of water in the condo alone, plus all the water at the park that we drank every day.

(I’m sure I didn’t gain 15 lbs, but I definitely didn’t lose any weight.)

I even managed to get a little crossfit workout in on Friday! Was pretty proud of myself. Then I spent the rest of that day and night on my feet, and was like, uh yeah, there will be no more working out while I’m here. My feet felt like they were going to fall off, and when I’d get out of bed each morning, they didn’t really function properly for a few minutes. It’s a really terrible feeling, and I felt crippled each day, which is something I’m either going to have to get used to, or have to get checked out, I’m not sure which would be the more realistic approach. We’ll see how they feel as time progresses.

I AM excited to get back into a mostly Paleo routine though! We got back tonight around 6p, and I decided to head to the grocery store to go ahead and stock up on good foods to have in the house. I have decided that fruit won’t kill me, and I bought a bunch of those Naked juices in different flavors, as well as bananas, and some more trail mix. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, sugar in fruit, whatever. I’d rather snack on a banana than freak out and hate my diet and want to quit it. I am also good at skipping meals like breakfast, so if I have one of those in the fridge, I’ll grab it and at least have SOMETHING good in my system to start my day.

Anyway, that’s about it. Back to Crossfit tomorrow at 5:30p! I feel like a part of me has been missing! The last 6 days has been incredibly surreal, and a total whirlwind.

If you’d like to see a cool recap of my weekend, check out our friend Mike’s pictures. You can find them here:

Digital Gold Photography

Lots of milestones happened on Wednesday!! I completed 30 actual days of Crossfit in just under 2 months, I finished The Whole 30 Paleo challenge, I got my 30 day bloodwork done, and I had my measurements taken!

First of all, Crossfit is something, for me, that has changed how I feel, my overall outlook, how I work out, and again, it’s so hard to describe the sense of community and friendship that I’ve built along the way. It’s just incredible though, and I hope that I can continue to be a Crossfitter for as long as feasibly, physically possible. 🙂

Now.. The Whole 30.  I did my absolute best to stick to my diet for 30 days.  I didn’t eat any breads, sugars, starches, almost no dairy (cream in my coffee, I won’t give it up, it’s not happening.) no grains.. It was awesome.  It’s the first time I’ve done a challenge like this where I’ve committed to do something along with a bunch of other people, and the accountability this time around was something I had never had before. It definitely made a difference!

I was so committed that, on the first day it was all over with, we went out to breakfast and I had these high hopes of ordering a breakfast burrito, with cheese and potatoes.. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and instead opted for my regular veggie omelet that I had been getting for a month, except that I added some cheese to it this time, and had 3 bites of potatoes. I felt SO GUILTY for eating those 3 bites of potatoes! It was ridiculous.  And in all honesty, they didn’t even taste as good as I had remembered.

That morning, I went and got my bloodwork done, as my 30 day experiment, to see if how I was eating for a month made any difference on my numbers. We’ll get those results back next week, I believe.

Before I had a chance to consume anything, I went in for my weigh in and measurements.  In 30 days, I have lost 12 lbs of body fat, lost 10 inches on my waist alone, and 4 inches on my hips. I guess that would explain the 2-3 belt loops I’m down! 😀 Total motivation to keep going!

Our workout was great.  We worked on squat cleans and power cleans, and I was able to squat clean 115 lbs.

Our WOD for the day was 21, 15, 9 reps

squat cleans (with 65 lbs for me)
ring dips

I finished in 12:07 and used my extra time to cheer the others on.

We’re in Miami for the next few days, so I’ve gone off my diet here and there out of convenience, but I stocked up on nuts and fruits to keep in the condo we’re staying at so I have good snacks.  I even got a good workout in this morning too! So proud of myself.

OMGGG so.. I’m a day late for this one, but I decided to do 3 days in a row of Crossfit, because we’re headed to Miami tomorrow for Ultra Music Fest. Well, I walked in and Elaine, one of the other crossfitters, looked at me like I was nuts. I told her I was there because I didn’t want to miss any of my workouts this week. She said, you know we’re doing the same thing today that you did yesterday, right?

NOOOOOOOOoooooo!!! God no.. whyyyy… That WOD was so hard! But.. I was there, I couldn’t turn around and leave with dignity, so I decided to just, do it again. ALL over again.

It was pretty awesome, and luckily, I got to do the modded WOD, which was a watered down version. I just had to do more rounds. I got through 2 full rounds, and finished my 50 squats from the 3rd round. Not too bad! MAN was I sore last night though!!

Killer WOD Day 2

AND last night was my 30th day of Paleo.. which meant TODAY was my day for measurements and weigh in! I was super careful last night about what I ate, and made sure I drank plenty of water! Probably should have followed that principle the WHOLE time, but I suck at drinking lots of water.. anyway, I’ll post more about my results from today later. 🙂 (they’re good!)

YEEAH. So, there’s only supposed to be one more day of Paleo for me, but I’m going to keep it up all the way through my workout Wednesday evening..  I won’t be going to get my blood work done til Wednesday morning, and I just asked Erin M if I could come by in the morning on Wednesday for my measurements and weigh in (that way I can go get a smoothie or something after, and not worry about it contributing to inches or pounds, hah..) I’m not really sure I’ve ‘lost’ that much weight, but I know I’ve gotten smaller and toned up a bit. It’s not so much about the numbers on the scale, but about the measurements, so I’m excited to see where I stand.

Today was a bit crazy, as usual of course. I suppose I shouldn’t expect anything less by now.  Our warm up was the usual, high knees, butt kicks, frog jumps, etc.  10 push ups, and 1 lap around the building. I kept up with Nick today, (or he slowed down to match my speed, maybe?)  Then we worked on double unders which I totally suck at.  I can do regular jump roping just fine, but the two under at a time? Forget it. Once in a while, I’ll get it, but it takes my 100 tries to get one, it seems. And it’s by chance, not on purpose.

Today’s WOD

Anyway, the WOD today was killer! I need a My WOD Killed Me Today shirt or something. Not like last Monday or anything, but holy shit.

2RFT with a 25 min time limit
100 air squats
21 burpees
25 double under attempts
15 burpees
50 sit ups (my tailbone was wondering wtf I was doing, but I made it..)
9 burpees
25 KB swings (35 lbs)

My goal really was one full round, which I did! I got through the 1st round, and got 22 squats into the 2nd round. Not too bad. But JESUS that was a tough one! I like the ones that don’t have barbell weight sometimes. It’s a nice mix up, and they seem more challenging.

aaand, a nice new artsy picture of me from tonight! I got home and went upstairs, since Dave was playing with the new mix he’s working on for me.  Of course I entertained myself by taking pictures of.. myself. 😀

I decided to mix it up and add some cardio in today, and headed to spin class this afternoon. I was so amped up to go, and motivated and all that, music started off right, was smiling with excitement, and… my left foot started giving me shit about 10-15 min in. The same pain that came from running so much awhile back, it’s on the outside, underside of my left foot, kind of around my pinky toe now, and to put my full weight on it when we were doing anything other than a standing jog really bothered me… After 15 min, a standing jog started to hurt, AND I felt a blister-sort of pain on the ball of my left foot, since I was overcompensating for the other part of my foot.

Spin Fail. 🙁

I stuck it out for about 35-40 min, but decided that it wasn’t worth a giant blister and further foot pain and left early. WTF? Pretty bummed about it, because it started with that outside underside pinky toe pain, and I don’t know how to fix it.  I was looking forward to trying to go to spin on Tuesday at 5:30p as well, but if my foot is still hurting by then (which is probably will be, since it’s been bugging me for a couple weeks now) I don’t want to push it.

Crossfit has officially taken over.

On a good note, I bought my first strapless maxi dress today!! Not something I ever expected to buy or wear.. It still needs to pass the final Dave inspection though. We’ll see how that goes. 😀 It comes with optional straps too, that I’m thinking will be mandatory straps, if you know what I mean..

Almost to Day 30!! Today was a good day. Was a little different than usual, but was still good! I got to head back to my 11a class since there currently aren’t any other time slots open for Friday that work for me, so it was awesome to see the crew.

11a Inertia Crossfit Crew

I’m super excited for next week, as it’s the end of my Whole 30 challenge at the gym! I’m excited to see what my progress has been, although it feels like its slowed a bit, and I’m also excited to go get my bloodwork done to see if it’s made any difference in my numbers. I had great cholesterol numbers before, so it’s really just for shits and giggles. I have certain cravings here and there, but none so tempting to where I actually cave.  It’s mostly for things like, blue cheese dressing on a salad, or zingers at the Ale House, cause those things are so damn good, or sour cream on some ground beef. Nothing crazy like ice cream (although some ice cream sure sounds good right about now) or pizza. (No desire to eat pizza..)

The soreness has subsided a little, but I still feel every aching muscle in my body when I stand up or move around. It’s crazy. I can work out and walk around and warm up just fine, but once I stop or slow down, I’m all hunched over and creaky and mumbling and moaning and groaning.  Hoping this sort of soreness stops.  I’m thinking it’s mostly due to my ability to push myself further than before, so I tend to work harder, thus straining my muscles more. That HAS to be it, right?? My knees are sore more often, because I can squat with heavier weight, and more reps. My back is sore because I can now do dead lifts and kettlebell swings with more weight and reps. My damn left foot is sore every time I take a step now, because I can now run twice around the building (600 meters) without stopping to walk.  I wish my stomach muscles were sore! Because that would mean they were getting more of a workout! I need to work on using my core more for lifting, and not just relying on my back and legs to do the work. Even after my 100 amazing sit ups earlier this week, my stomach was moderately sore, but nothing like my back. Geez. 100 sit ups and I don’t hurt. What’s the deal?

Anyway, our warm up today was good. We had to do the following:

2 Rounds
10 good mornings (35lb bar)
10 KBs (35 lb)
10 shoulder movements with band on each arm. (5 pulling inward, and 5 pulling away)
20 walking lunges

We also worked on our strict press today, (3-3-3-1-1 reps) which from what I gathered is the same or very similar to a shoulder press. My max for the shoulder press last time was 85 lbs and I couldn’t even get it over my head. I literally couldn’t straighten my elbows because of the weight! BUT TODAAAAY I was able to press 90 lbs without too much trouble!! So proud. Proof I’m getting stronger. 🙂

Our WOD was a Diane.
21-15-9 reps of Deadlifts and then HSPUs.

Because of my back still hurting so much from Monday’s workout, I asked for an alternate movement, so I did front squats instead. I had 85 lbs on the bar, and man, it was hard to go from the front squats to the hand stand push ups, mainly because of the strain on my wrists with the weight!  I did it though!  My HSPUs could use some improvement, but I can at least bend my elbows slightly. I need to get better at those.

I finished my WOD in 8:35. Will be cool to see what I can get next time around.