So remember last night how I was all like "Paleo is awesome! I'll never go back and here are the reasons!"? Yeah, it all went downhill from there. I'm sore as hell today, I slept like crap last night, and all I want right now is a huge plate of lasagna. Literally, that's all I want. A huge lasagna...with real pasta. I think the Italian in me is rebelling against the make believe carbs I eat. A piece of cake wouldn't hurt either. And no, I'm not PMSing. I'm just...in a funk today I guess.
But let's backup.
Aside from sleeping like crap last night, I was up at 530 ready to go. My shoulders and upper arms did not and still don't appreciate me right now. Got to work and we ran our asses off for the first couple hours. Had one of those calls where everything is just so rapidfire and crazy. Finally got to eat my breakfast of frittata and Italian sausage with a banana. Rest of the day was relatively quiet. Lunch was leftover meatloaf and zucchini pancakes and my snack was carrots. Now if my arms didn't already hurt enough, try tacking on waxing an entire ambulance. I still don't know how to do karate either. I feel jipped.
For dinner tonight, I tried the Artichoke Lemon Pesto Chicken Pasta:
1 lb boneless chicken breasts, cubed
1 large spaghetti squash
12-15 halved artichoke hearts
1/3 cup walnuts
4-5 tbsp. olive oil
4-5 tbsp. vegetable broth
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup basil
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper
3-5 cups spinach (optional)
Cook the spaghetti squash. I nuked it for 10 minutes, others recommend roasting it. Put a large pan with some olive oil over medium-high heat and add the artichokes. Cook until they are brown on each side. Put the artichokes in a food processor with the walnuts, olive oil, lemon juice, basil, parsley and vegetable broth and puree until smooth. Add the chicken to the same pan the artichokes cooked in. Season with salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you like. Once the chicken is cooked, add in 1/4 of the pesto and the spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted. Add the spaghetti squash to the pan along with the rest of the pesto and mix well.
So I modified this recipe a bit. I forgot to get basil at the store so I didn't use it as an ingredient. I didn't use spinach. I also used a bit of the leftover tomato paste in the pesto, which made it quite good. I also threw in a few whole artichokes with the chicken, just because things weren't artichoke-y enough already. Essentially I butchered this recipe and threw my own stuff in there.
My thoughts on this recipe essentially revolve around the spaghetti squash. What a strange vegetable. I still don't know how I feel about it. I don't know if I didn't cook it long enough but that shit was crunchy! It was like eating spaghetti that you boiled long enough so that you could just add a little more flexibility to it. Guess I'll just have to work on getting used to it. And maybe I'll try actually roasting it next time. I'm determined to find the best pasta substitute. Although I DID find a recipe for sweet potato gnocchi. Hmmmm.
Today has been a very weird day indeed. I haven't really been "hungry" today, but at the same time I just want to keep eating. Doesn't even matter what it is really. I was fine with eating carrots. I guess I shouldn't rave about how awesome something is too early on lest I mess it up. Still cheat free though so I guess I'm doing something right. Even had to tighten my belt a little today. I can't say that I haven't been that obsessive person getting on the scale all the time because I have been. Totally guilty. Along with being totally guilty of second-guessing everything at least once a day. But week 2 isn't even over yet so I have no basis to complain.
Hoping a little sleep and an easy day tomorrow will reset things!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
I Put Things Down and I Pick Them Up
Today was a pretty crummy day as far as the weather goes. And crummy days usually mean sweatpants and my couch. But first I worked out.
Warm Up:
100 jump rope
20 kettlebell swings
10 broad jumps
1 lap inchworm
Chest/shoulder mobility
Strength:
5 x 5 split jerk
MetCon:
5 rounds - 10 pull-ups, 10 ring dips (5 minute cap)
...rest 3 minutes...
40 dumbbell ground to overheads (20 each arm)
...rest 3 minutes...
5 minutes of burpees
This workout hurt...a lot. It was very chest/shoulder intensive, which for me is bad from the start. It was my first time learning a split jerk, which looks a lot like this:
I think that this movement is a lot of fun. It's like a push press with a lot more added momentum to it. Now with the momentum coming from your legs, you'd think you wouldn't really feel a lot in your arms but you really do. I finally maxed out at 83 pounds, and by maxed out I mean I was literally teetering at the top.
The MetCon was just a heart racing pile of awfulness. To finish the first exercise, you literally needed to be doing a round per minute and that sure as hell wasn't happening. I did really well with the ground to overheads though, finished in 4:00 using a 30 lb dumbbell. And then it was burpee time. Effing burpees. I can honestly say I'd never done 5 straight minutes of them before. I got 35 done. Not TOO shabby but I was kind of looking for more.
I have a few thoughts as Week 2 starts winding down.
So things that I'm starting to notice overall:
- My burpees are getting a lot more powerful. I can now fully jump back up to a standing position whereas before it was a little hop and I was using my back to roll back up to standing
- My upper body strength overall has improved a lot. When I first started crossfit, I was very uneven with my left side being at the disadvantage. I think I'm starting to even out more as well as building up a little more strength each time. I no longer practically fall on my face when I'm doing burpees and I can just about do some full-body pushups in a row. But that leads me to my next point...
- I've kind of hit a wall with pull-ups. I haven't noticed any marked improvements. I'm still using the same band and my stamina is about the same. I don't know if I should start going for kipping pull-ups, or maybe I should just stay after class and work on them.
- I'm having a much easier time doing the simultaneous movements that are required with olympic lifts. It's not such a big deal anymore to use legs and arms all at the same time. I'm sure my squat cleans still aren't all there, but overall, it's getting better.
- My leg strength is just shooting through the roof. I feel like I'm sore for a day after and then I'm ready to lift another 10-20 pounds higher than I did the day before.
- I was already somewhat flexible, but my flexibility has gone up a lot in the past 2 months
Things that I'm noticing after going completely paleo:
- Little to no soreness after workouts and if I do feel it, it's nothing unbearable
- I sleep like a rock at night. I no longer have issues falling asleep and I legitimately feel well rested
- I come home from workouts feeling like I have energy to get through the rest of the day. I may hit some mid-afternoon sleepiness but I don't leave the gym feeling like I need a nap
- Shoulder and back muscles! And who knew my knees were so bony?!
- I finish my meals feeling full and I no longer feel deprived if I don't have a source of carbs
- I feel genuinely happier. It could just be because I'm done with school, but I walk into the gym feeling ready to go and I feel like my mind has kind of sorted itself out a bit
All in all, this is going really well, and like I said yesterday, I may not notice the inches coming off but there are still some aspects that are continuously getting better.
The rest of today was really low key. I came home and took a long hot shower. I don't know if anyone else notices this, but when I come home after working out, I feel so cold. I go from hard sweaty work to getting in the car and going home so I wonder if my body slams on the brakes with trying to cool me down and just needs some readjustment time. Either way, it's nothing a hot shower doesn't fix. Spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the couch. I didn't have meal prep Day 2 as promised because I just wasn't feeling it. It'll probably get moved to tomorrow.
Food today was a breakfast of scrambled eggs, an orange and a link of Italian sausage. Lunch was when I got super lazy. I heated up some of the soup and was going to make a side salad with tomato and deli turkey. Well I decided I didn't want to cut up the tomato so I wrapped the lettuce in the turkey and made a couple wraps out of that. Perfect lazy meal. The soup was delicious by the way! My snack was a boiled egg and a banana with almond butter. Dinner was two slices of meatloaf and some zucchini pancakes that I made (recipe below). The meatloaf was a little dryer than I wanted it to be, but it was still fairly good.
Zucchini Pancakes
1 tbsp. almond flour (you can also use coconut)
3 eggs
2 cups shredded zucchini
Coconut/olive oil or bacon grease
Salt/pepper
Sift the flour into the eggs and beat them together. Mix in the shredded zucchini and seasonings. Coat a cast iron skillet with your oil/grease of choice on medium-high heat. Spoon the mixture into the pan in desired sized cakes.
I think these ended up delicious. Very easy to make. I burned the first couple a little bit but the last few ended up great. I would say to cook them about 3-5 minutes on each side. I made about 6 cakes out of the recipe. Only complaint I had was that they flattened out a lot so they're not very thick. Otherwise, a not too shabby last minute attempt. If you're like me and ended up putting too much olive oil in the pan, just put the cooked pancakes on a plate that's covered in a paper towel and it will absorb whatever is left over.
Tomorrow is another day at work - 11 hours. I have my meals all packed up and ready to go. Also had to figure out what source of entertainment I was going to bring since I no longer have schoolwork to worry about. There definitely isn't a shortage of things I found to do. And now that I've cursed myself, we're going to be running our asses off all day.
Well, it is most definitely bed time. G'night all!
Warm Up:
100 jump rope
20 kettlebell swings
10 broad jumps
1 lap inchworm
Chest/shoulder mobility
Strength:
5 x 5 split jerk
MetCon:
5 rounds - 10 pull-ups, 10 ring dips (5 minute cap)
...rest 3 minutes...
40 dumbbell ground to overheads (20 each arm)
...rest 3 minutes...
5 minutes of burpees
This workout hurt...a lot. It was very chest/shoulder intensive, which for me is bad from the start. It was my first time learning a split jerk, which looks a lot like this:
The MetCon was just a heart racing pile of awfulness. To finish the first exercise, you literally needed to be doing a round per minute and that sure as hell wasn't happening. I did really well with the ground to overheads though, finished in 4:00 using a 30 lb dumbbell. And then it was burpee time. Effing burpees. I can honestly say I'd never done 5 straight minutes of them before. I got 35 done. Not TOO shabby but I was kind of looking for more.
I have a few thoughts as Week 2 starts winding down.
So things that I'm starting to notice overall:
- My burpees are getting a lot more powerful. I can now fully jump back up to a standing position whereas before it was a little hop and I was using my back to roll back up to standing
- My upper body strength overall has improved a lot. When I first started crossfit, I was very uneven with my left side being at the disadvantage. I think I'm starting to even out more as well as building up a little more strength each time. I no longer practically fall on my face when I'm doing burpees and I can just about do some full-body pushups in a row. But that leads me to my next point...
- I've kind of hit a wall with pull-ups. I haven't noticed any marked improvements. I'm still using the same band and my stamina is about the same. I don't know if I should start going for kipping pull-ups, or maybe I should just stay after class and work on them.
- I'm having a much easier time doing the simultaneous movements that are required with olympic lifts. It's not such a big deal anymore to use legs and arms all at the same time. I'm sure my squat cleans still aren't all there, but overall, it's getting better.
- My leg strength is just shooting through the roof. I feel like I'm sore for a day after and then I'm ready to lift another 10-20 pounds higher than I did the day before.
- I was already somewhat flexible, but my flexibility has gone up a lot in the past 2 months
Things that I'm noticing after going completely paleo:
- Little to no soreness after workouts and if I do feel it, it's nothing unbearable
- I sleep like a rock at night. I no longer have issues falling asleep and I legitimately feel well rested
- I come home from workouts feeling like I have energy to get through the rest of the day. I may hit some mid-afternoon sleepiness but I don't leave the gym feeling like I need a nap
- Shoulder and back muscles! And who knew my knees were so bony?!
- I finish my meals feeling full and I no longer feel deprived if I don't have a source of carbs
- I feel genuinely happier. It could just be because I'm done with school, but I walk into the gym feeling ready to go and I feel like my mind has kind of sorted itself out a bit
All in all, this is going really well, and like I said yesterday, I may not notice the inches coming off but there are still some aspects that are continuously getting better.
The rest of today was really low key. I came home and took a long hot shower. I don't know if anyone else notices this, but when I come home after working out, I feel so cold. I go from hard sweaty work to getting in the car and going home so I wonder if my body slams on the brakes with trying to cool me down and just needs some readjustment time. Either way, it's nothing a hot shower doesn't fix. Spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the couch. I didn't have meal prep Day 2 as promised because I just wasn't feeling it. It'll probably get moved to tomorrow.
Food today was a breakfast of scrambled eggs, an orange and a link of Italian sausage. Lunch was when I got super lazy. I heated up some of the soup and was going to make a side salad with tomato and deli turkey. Well I decided I didn't want to cut up the tomato so I wrapped the lettuce in the turkey and made a couple wraps out of that. Perfect lazy meal. The soup was delicious by the way! My snack was a boiled egg and a banana with almond butter. Dinner was two slices of meatloaf and some zucchini pancakes that I made (recipe below). The meatloaf was a little dryer than I wanted it to be, but it was still fairly good.
Zucchini Pancakes
1 tbsp. almond flour (you can also use coconut)
3 eggs
2 cups shredded zucchini
Coconut/olive oil or bacon grease
Salt/pepper
Sift the flour into the eggs and beat them together. Mix in the shredded zucchini and seasonings. Coat a cast iron skillet with your oil/grease of choice on medium-high heat. Spoon the mixture into the pan in desired sized cakes.
I think these ended up delicious. Very easy to make. I burned the first couple a little bit but the last few ended up great. I would say to cook them about 3-5 minutes on each side. I made about 6 cakes out of the recipe. Only complaint I had was that they flattened out a lot so they're not very thick. Otherwise, a not too shabby last minute attempt. If you're like me and ended up putting too much olive oil in the pan, just put the cooked pancakes on a plate that's covered in a paper towel and it will absorb whatever is left over.
Tomorrow is another day at work - 11 hours. I have my meals all packed up and ready to go. Also had to figure out what source of entertainment I was going to bring since I no longer have schoolwork to worry about. There definitely isn't a shortage of things I found to do. And now that I've cursed myself, we're going to be running our asses off all day.
Well, it is most definitely bed time. G'night all!
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Paleo on a Budget...I was Doing it Wrong
As promised, today I did some research. My results: Trader Joe's is much less expensive than Wegmans. Well, for most things. As far as produce goes, Trader Joe's takes the cake by a long shot. Instead of charging you by the pound, they charge you for each so I can get the things I love like tomatoes, zucchini and other "heavier" vegetables without breaking the bank. The produce also just looks much better than Wegmans. As far as meat/deli meat go, Trader Joe's is slightly more pricey, but not by too much. With dairy, Wegmans is the less expensive way to go. Because of the recipes I was making this week, I needed to get things like butter and cream, so honestly it probably wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for those items. Regardless, I got out of there with $53 spent and enough food to last a week. If I wasn't experimenting with recipes this week and needed more specialized products, I would say that's damn good.
I only have one real complaint about Trader Joe's and it's the level of variety they have. If it weren't for that, I would just shop there entirely. But for things like breakfast sausages and ground beef, the variety was kind of lacking, so I will probably end up making short trips to Wegmans. Other than that, I will primarily be doing my shopping at Trader Joe's from now on. This weekend is going to be busy so I won't be able to add in trips to the farmer's market, but once that happens I may just be able to rid myself of Wegmans altogether. Stay tuned for further research.
Also got me some new gadgets today. I got myself a little 2 cup food processor. I have a magic bullet and I know those can be used for some food processing needs but my experience with it is that it doesn't get the job done evenly. It only really works on whatever is closest to the blade. I also got an olive oil mister. Drives me crazy when I'm trying to roast zucchini or sweet potatoes and I end up wasting so much olive oil because it comes out of the container all at once. Lastly I got a nice big lunchbox, which I'm so excited for. They had fancy tote bag type ones but I went with the boring kind that you can put square containers into. My next appliance is definitely going to be a waffle maker. And in the mornin' I'm makin' waffles!
Came home and got to work in the kitchen. The recipes I was making today were Creamy Roasted Red Pepper, Sausage & Cauliflower Soup, Italian Meatloaf, and another frittata.
For the frittata, I used zucchini, onion, red pepper, and tomato. It turned out a lot more fluffy this time than last. I did add a little almond milk to the eggs just to fluff them up a bit so that could be it. Probably also helps that I kept track of the time instead of winging it this time. Either way, it looks mighty delicious.
The recipe for the Creamy Roasted Red Pepper, Sausage & Cauliflower Soup is:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion
1 head cauliflower
1 red pepper
1-2 cups chopped sausage (cooked before you start making the soup -- I used Mild Italian)
4 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup coconut milk
Assorted seasonings (I used black pepper, garlic powder, salt and italian seasoning)
Chop the onion and caramelize it in a large soup pot. While the onions are caramelizing, chop up the cauliflower and red pepper into small pieces. Put the red pepper on a cookie sheet and roast at 400 degrees until it starts crinkling around the edges. Once the onions are done, add the cauliflower and the chicken stock to the pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer covered until you can easily pierce the cauliflower with a fork. Remove about half of the mixture and put in a food processor with the coconut milk. Puree until it's no longer chunky. While I was doing that, I put the sausage and red pepper in the pot and brought it back to a boil for about 5 minutes, just to mix the flavors together and to finish cooking the sausage all the way through. Once that is done, add back the pureed cauliflower, add seasonings and let cook for a few more minutes. Voila!
The recipe for the Italian Meatloaf is:
1 lb grassfed ground beef (I used 93/7)
1 yellow onion, diced
1 roasted green pepper, diced
1 cup tomato sauce, divided
1 egg, whisked
3/4 cup almond flour
Italian seasoning
Olive oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sautee the onion and roasted red pepper together in a skillet with olive oil until the onions soften. Add the onions and peppers to a bowl, along with all the other ingredients. Mix together. Transfer to a greased loaf pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. At the 30 minute mark, take the meatloaf out and spread the remaining tomato sauce on top and let it finish baking.
So just a few notes on these recipes:
- The soup doesn't actually turn out that creamy, it just looks like it should be. It tastes good but I almost wonder if I should have pureed all the cauliflower. Little pieces of cauliflower kind of feel weird from a textural standpoint so I think that's what I'll do if I make this recipe again.
- I generally don't like a lot of onion in my recipes so for both of these recipes, I used about half an onion each and left a little for the frittata. I think even that much gives just the right amount of flavor
- For the tomato sauce, I just used tomato paste and mixed water into it until I got the consistency I wanted and added some italian seasoning to it. I think it turns out just as good. Most of the store bought stuff has soybean oil in it, which I can't have, so I went with the paste.
Everything looks really good so far! I haven't tried any of it out since I had tilapia for dinner, but it looks promising! Going to have another meal prep day tomorrow although it won't be as intensive as today. Although, having pancakes for breakfast is looking mighty delicious so we'll see what happens.
Still feeling really good! Been going to bed by midnight and setting my alarm for 9 although I've been waking up on my own by around 8. I still haven't gotten to the point where I'm ready to jump out of bed, but I'm also not going back to sleep until noon. I feel well rested and ready to start my day, even if it is a bit of a slow start. I'm still trying to figure out how to kick the mid-afternoon lethargy though. I figure that will come with time.
I think April I will officially change my membership to unlimited. I feel like I'm starting to get to that point where going 3 times a week is good, but I just know there's a plateau somewhere and I don't want to run right into it. I still have a long ways to go as far as getting back in shape but I think my body is remembering things a lot better than I'm giving it credit for. Regardless, week 2 is going great. I'm not feeling any drastic changes yet, but time will tell. That's why it's a 6 week challenge. I can't expect to be dropping 7 pounds a week like the guys do, but I'm hoping the end result is something I can be happy with.
Back to the gym tomorrow! G'night all!
I only have one real complaint about Trader Joe's and it's the level of variety they have. If it weren't for that, I would just shop there entirely. But for things like breakfast sausages and ground beef, the variety was kind of lacking, so I will probably end up making short trips to Wegmans. Other than that, I will primarily be doing my shopping at Trader Joe's from now on. This weekend is going to be busy so I won't be able to add in trips to the farmer's market, but once that happens I may just be able to rid myself of Wegmans altogether. Stay tuned for further research.
Also got me some new gadgets today. I got myself a little 2 cup food processor. I have a magic bullet and I know those can be used for some food processing needs but my experience with it is that it doesn't get the job done evenly. It only really works on whatever is closest to the blade. I also got an olive oil mister. Drives me crazy when I'm trying to roast zucchini or sweet potatoes and I end up wasting so much olive oil because it comes out of the container all at once. Lastly I got a nice big lunchbox, which I'm so excited for. They had fancy tote bag type ones but I went with the boring kind that you can put square containers into. My next appliance is definitely going to be a waffle maker. And in the mornin' I'm makin' waffles!
Came home and got to work in the kitchen. The recipes I was making today were Creamy Roasted Red Pepper, Sausage & Cauliflower Soup, Italian Meatloaf, and another frittata.
For the frittata, I used zucchini, onion, red pepper, and tomato. It turned out a lot more fluffy this time than last. I did add a little almond milk to the eggs just to fluff them up a bit so that could be it. Probably also helps that I kept track of the time instead of winging it this time. Either way, it looks mighty delicious.
The recipe for the Creamy Roasted Red Pepper, Sausage & Cauliflower Soup is:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion
1 head cauliflower
1 red pepper
1-2 cups chopped sausage (cooked before you start making the soup -- I used Mild Italian)
4 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup coconut milk
Assorted seasonings (I used black pepper, garlic powder, salt and italian seasoning)
Chop the onion and caramelize it in a large soup pot. While the onions are caramelizing, chop up the cauliflower and red pepper into small pieces. Put the red pepper on a cookie sheet and roast at 400 degrees until it starts crinkling around the edges. Once the onions are done, add the cauliflower and the chicken stock to the pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer covered until you can easily pierce the cauliflower with a fork. Remove about half of the mixture and put in a food processor with the coconut milk. Puree until it's no longer chunky. While I was doing that, I put the sausage and red pepper in the pot and brought it back to a boil for about 5 minutes, just to mix the flavors together and to finish cooking the sausage all the way through. Once that is done, add back the pureed cauliflower, add seasonings and let cook for a few more minutes. Voila!
The recipe for the Italian Meatloaf is:
1 lb grassfed ground beef (I used 93/7)
1 yellow onion, diced
1 roasted green pepper, diced
1 cup tomato sauce, divided
1 egg, whisked
3/4 cup almond flour
Italian seasoning
Olive oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sautee the onion and roasted red pepper together in a skillet with olive oil until the onions soften. Add the onions and peppers to a bowl, along with all the other ingredients. Mix together. Transfer to a greased loaf pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. At the 30 minute mark, take the meatloaf out and spread the remaining tomato sauce on top and let it finish baking.
So just a few notes on these recipes:
- The soup doesn't actually turn out that creamy, it just looks like it should be. It tastes good but I almost wonder if I should have pureed all the cauliflower. Little pieces of cauliflower kind of feel weird from a textural standpoint so I think that's what I'll do if I make this recipe again.
- I generally don't like a lot of onion in my recipes so for both of these recipes, I used about half an onion each and left a little for the frittata. I think even that much gives just the right amount of flavor
- For the tomato sauce, I just used tomato paste and mixed water into it until I got the consistency I wanted and added some italian seasoning to it. I think it turns out just as good. Most of the store bought stuff has soybean oil in it, which I can't have, so I went with the paste.
Everything looks really good so far! I haven't tried any of it out since I had tilapia for dinner, but it looks promising! Going to have another meal prep day tomorrow although it won't be as intensive as today. Although, having pancakes for breakfast is looking mighty delicious so we'll see what happens.
Still feeling really good! Been going to bed by midnight and setting my alarm for 9 although I've been waking up on my own by around 8. I still haven't gotten to the point where I'm ready to jump out of bed, but I'm also not going back to sleep until noon. I feel well rested and ready to start my day, even if it is a bit of a slow start. I'm still trying to figure out how to kick the mid-afternoon lethargy though. I figure that will come with time.
I think April I will officially change my membership to unlimited. I feel like I'm starting to get to that point where going 3 times a week is good, but I just know there's a plateau somewhere and I don't want to run right into it. I still have a long ways to go as far as getting back in shape but I think my body is remembering things a lot better than I'm giving it credit for. Regardless, week 2 is going great. I'm not feeling any drastic changes yet, but time will tell. That's why it's a 6 week challenge. I can't expect to be dropping 7 pounds a week like the guys do, but I'm hoping the end result is something I can be happy with.
Back to the gym tomorrow! G'night all!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Just One of Those Days
I'm baaaaack!
So this weekend was awesome. Had a great time with everyone and got to learn some really cool things. As far as the eating went, it was a cheat weekend and there was essentially no way of getting around it unless I wanted to lock myself in my room and starve. Friday I was good just because I brought all my food with me. Saturday and Sunday were no bueno - we're not even going to get into the horrific (yet delicious) things I ate. Trust me, my digestive system punished me enough for it. In conclusion, I'm moving on. No more cheat days.
There are a LOT of things on the docket for this week: food shopping, food prepping, FINALLY getting to really clean up my room and put the school supplies away, and various other sundry items such as researching grad schools and getting stuff done for RITA. No big deal, I like to say.
Last night after getting home, I essentially went right to bed. Submitted my points for Week 1, made a very brief shopping list, and passed the hell out. I gotta say, I don't miss vampire hours at all...it's really nice going to bed and not waking up at noon or later. I got so much done in the time from 9 am to noon that I don't know why I don't just go to bed early all the time. Hell, I'm gonna do it right after I post this! Picked up the puppy and went to the gym. Because I'm dumb, I forgot they changed the class time from 12:30 to 12, so I showed up at 12:30 wondering why everyone was loading up barbells. The coach was really chill about it and let me just do a 500 m row to warm up and then join in on the last exercises. Today's workout was all strength. My specialty...or so I thought.
Strength:
5 rounds: 12 deadlifts, 9 hang cleans, 6 push press -- working up to an unbroken weight (63 pounds)
Skill:
4 x 8 box squats (125 pounds)
The idea behind the strength portion of the workout was to get yourself to a weight where you could finish all 3 exercises without ever letting go of the barbell. Each of the 3 exercises ended conveniently at a point where you were already set up to transition into the next one, so it left you with no reason to put the thing down. I was pretty much done by the end of the 1st round, and that's kind of what I was afraid of. I maxed out at 63 pounds. Now if you've read some of my other posts, I'm definitely capable of lifting a lot more than that with those exercises. Being away from the gym for even just a week really kills me. I knew I would have a hard time going back because my knee and back pain came back over the weekend, and my body wasn't prepared for it. Literally my body is addicted to CrossFit. People might think I'm crazy but it's true. After just 4 days of being away from it, all the joints start going through withdrawal and they just start hurting again; 7 days...fuhget about it. I of course beasted through the squats because I've got the freakin legs of Superman.
I ended this week with 57 points. I'm not quite sure how many you can get but it's a good starting point. I could definitely use some more bonus points this week and I also need to stay away from the cheats for sure. I'm not complaining. I was feeling great up until Saturday so any setbacks I may have in the next couple days are completely my fault.
On to the most important part of my week...and that is food!
Today I super scrounged, not for lack of knowing what to eat, but more because there is nothing to eat in this place. For breakfast I tried my hand at a strawberry pineapple smoothie with almond milk since I wanted to get out the door and run some errands. Yeah, it was gross. Never again. So after doing the errands I had a couple pieces of smoked turkey and an orange. After working out, I baked a chicken breast and grilled up the last little bit of eggplant. Few hours later I had a snack of an apple with almond butter. Went to work for a couple hours and by the time I got out I just wasn't hungry/didn't feel like making food at 9:30, so it's being deferred until tomorrow.
Tomorrow is food shopping day. I've decided to do a little in depth research since I have tomorrow completely off. I'm going to make a trip to Trader Joe's just to see how the quality/price matches up with the things I buy at Wegmans. Obviously I'm still looking to go to the public market for things like fresh veggies and also meat, but there are some things that will still need to be bought in the stores.
I'm very psyched for some of the recipes I'm looking to try. I'm probably going to make another shepherd's pie too just because it's easy to have on hand for lunch since I'm so uncreative when it comes to that meal. I'm home practically all week so why not try something new! After doing some research I found some great looking substitutes for pasta -- spaghetti squash and zucchini. When you cook spaghetti squash and scrape out the insides, it looks like real spaghetti, and after I get a julienne peeler, I can made noodles out of zucchini. Very exciting since I've kind of started missing pasta a little. I essentially spent my afternoon going through recipes and picking out my favorite ones. There will be no lack of good food in this house.
The recipes on the docket for this week are (I'll post the recipes tomorrow since they'll take up a bit of space):
Italian Meatloaf
Cauliflower bread
Pepper and Sausage Chowder
Artichoke Pesto Chicken Pasta
I plan on getting myself a metric crapton of cauliflower to keep on hand just because it actually can be used in a lot of things. I'll also be getting myself some almond flour so maybe I can give pancakes a shot. I haven't decided on snacks yet but those are usually a last minute thing of picking up a few extra veggies or fruit. I think I'm more leaving that up to what I find at Trader Joe's. The deli meats and the jerky really worked out last week so maybe I'll go for more of that.
If anyone is curious about which sites I use to get Paleo recipes/more ideas, here are the ones I've been using a lot lately:
http://paleomg.com/
http://fastpaleo.com/
http://www.paleoeffect.com/
http://www.paleoplan.com/
I'm sure there's millions more out there but those are the ones that I've recently been getting most of my recipes from.
Methinks it's finally bed time. I can definitely get used to the graduated life.
G'night all!
So this weekend was awesome. Had a great time with everyone and got to learn some really cool things. As far as the eating went, it was a cheat weekend and there was essentially no way of getting around it unless I wanted to lock myself in my room and starve. Friday I was good just because I brought all my food with me. Saturday and Sunday were no bueno - we're not even going to get into the horrific (yet delicious) things I ate. Trust me, my digestive system punished me enough for it. In conclusion, I'm moving on. No more cheat days.
There are a LOT of things on the docket for this week: food shopping, food prepping, FINALLY getting to really clean up my room and put the school supplies away, and various other sundry items such as researching grad schools and getting stuff done for RITA. No big deal, I like to say.
Last night after getting home, I essentially went right to bed. Submitted my points for Week 1, made a very brief shopping list, and passed the hell out. I gotta say, I don't miss vampire hours at all...it's really nice going to bed and not waking up at noon or later. I got so much done in the time from 9 am to noon that I don't know why I don't just go to bed early all the time. Hell, I'm gonna do it right after I post this! Picked up the puppy and went to the gym. Because I'm dumb, I forgot they changed the class time from 12:30 to 12, so I showed up at 12:30 wondering why everyone was loading up barbells. The coach was really chill about it and let me just do a 500 m row to warm up and then join in on the last exercises. Today's workout was all strength. My specialty...or so I thought.
Strength:
5 rounds: 12 deadlifts, 9 hang cleans, 6 push press -- working up to an unbroken weight (63 pounds)
Skill:
4 x 8 box squats (125 pounds)
The idea behind the strength portion of the workout was to get yourself to a weight where you could finish all 3 exercises without ever letting go of the barbell. Each of the 3 exercises ended conveniently at a point where you were already set up to transition into the next one, so it left you with no reason to put the thing down. I was pretty much done by the end of the 1st round, and that's kind of what I was afraid of. I maxed out at 63 pounds. Now if you've read some of my other posts, I'm definitely capable of lifting a lot more than that with those exercises. Being away from the gym for even just a week really kills me. I knew I would have a hard time going back because my knee and back pain came back over the weekend, and my body wasn't prepared for it. Literally my body is addicted to CrossFit. People might think I'm crazy but it's true. After just 4 days of being away from it, all the joints start going through withdrawal and they just start hurting again; 7 days...fuhget about it. I of course beasted through the squats because I've got the freakin legs of Superman.
I ended this week with 57 points. I'm not quite sure how many you can get but it's a good starting point. I could definitely use some more bonus points this week and I also need to stay away from the cheats for sure. I'm not complaining. I was feeling great up until Saturday so any setbacks I may have in the next couple days are completely my fault.
On to the most important part of my week...and that is food!
Today I super scrounged, not for lack of knowing what to eat, but more because there is nothing to eat in this place. For breakfast I tried my hand at a strawberry pineapple smoothie with almond milk since I wanted to get out the door and run some errands. Yeah, it was gross. Never again. So after doing the errands I had a couple pieces of smoked turkey and an orange. After working out, I baked a chicken breast and grilled up the last little bit of eggplant. Few hours later I had a snack of an apple with almond butter. Went to work for a couple hours and by the time I got out I just wasn't hungry/didn't feel like making food at 9:30, so it's being deferred until tomorrow.
Tomorrow is food shopping day. I've decided to do a little in depth research since I have tomorrow completely off. I'm going to make a trip to Trader Joe's just to see how the quality/price matches up with the things I buy at Wegmans. Obviously I'm still looking to go to the public market for things like fresh veggies and also meat, but there are some things that will still need to be bought in the stores.
I'm very psyched for some of the recipes I'm looking to try. I'm probably going to make another shepherd's pie too just because it's easy to have on hand for lunch since I'm so uncreative when it comes to that meal. I'm home practically all week so why not try something new! After doing some research I found some great looking substitutes for pasta -- spaghetti squash and zucchini. When you cook spaghetti squash and scrape out the insides, it looks like real spaghetti, and after I get a julienne peeler, I can made noodles out of zucchini. Very exciting since I've kind of started missing pasta a little. I essentially spent my afternoon going through recipes and picking out my favorite ones. There will be no lack of good food in this house.
The recipes on the docket for this week are (I'll post the recipes tomorrow since they'll take up a bit of space):
Italian Meatloaf
Cauliflower bread
Pepper and Sausage Chowder
Artichoke Pesto Chicken Pasta
I plan on getting myself a metric crapton of cauliflower to keep on hand just because it actually can be used in a lot of things. I'll also be getting myself some almond flour so maybe I can give pancakes a shot. I haven't decided on snacks yet but those are usually a last minute thing of picking up a few extra veggies or fruit. I think I'm more leaving that up to what I find at Trader Joe's. The deli meats and the jerky really worked out last week so maybe I'll go for more of that.
If anyone is curious about which sites I use to get Paleo recipes/more ideas, here are the ones I've been using a lot lately:
http://paleomg.com/
http://fastpaleo.com/
http://www.paleoeffect.com/
http://www.paleoplan.com/
I'm sure there's millions more out there but those are the ones that I've recently been getting most of my recipes from.
Methinks it's finally bed time. I can definitely get used to the graduated life.
G'night all!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Paleo - the College Student Version
Well folks, the time has finally come, the NCEMSF Conference. Where the hell has the time gone?
So today I woke up with a LOT to do. It's kind of nice being on normal human being hours and getting up at 8. I personally don't mind it. Stayed in bed for another 2 hours doing some studying. Got up and realized I had no freaking clue what to have for breakfast. I spent so much time agonizing over what to eat when I wouldn't be home that I didn't plan for when I would be home (#mealprepproblems). So I did what any normal college student would do and went scrounging. It was my last day as a college student, had to go out with a bang. Had myself a piece of frittata, a boiled egg, some ham and a couple strawberries. It's as balanced of a meal as it was going to get. Skipped lunch since I had an exam and errands to do (and also had no clue what the heck to eat). Came home and had a snack of turkey jerky and an apple with almond butter while I finished up a final paper. Dinner was a chicken breast with grilled eggplant and sweet potato fries.
Had to drop Mack off at the vet's for the weekend while I'm gone. Swear to God they thought I was crazy. Had his food all packed up, not to mention plenty of treats and of course a tennis ball. I was a wreck. He on the other hand thought life was just dandy. "Peace out mom! This lady seems nice!" "Yeah ok kid, let's remember 4 months ago where you were wrapped around my legs."
Came home and got occupied with prepping food for the trip, doing laundry and packing. I have to say I admire people that can plan a whole trip's worth of meals. Granted, they probably have a refrigerator or a way to keep their food fresh the whole time. I'm pretty sure I'm staying at one of those hotels where they charge you for looking at the refrigerator. So I compromised and made enough meals for tomorrow with the intention of staying as strict as possible Saturday and Sunday. I know that's going to be nearly impossible, but I'm definitely not going to go off and completely lose control. Breakfast is going to be the last piece of frittata, the last boiled egg and a couple pieces of ham. Lunch is an epic salad with romaine lettuce, carrots, tomato and canned salmon with olive oil. Snacks/some combination of dinner are going to be cut up strawberries, blueberries, leftover grilled salmon and sweet potato fries, and carrots with almond butter. None of those constitute as much of a "dinner" but I'm never really that hungry after long roadtrips anyway. I just really feel out of my element with this one. I'm good at eating cold pasta, or cold pizza or cold whatever was in the fridge that I could throw in a Tupperware container. But I'm kind of mind blown trying to figure out what kinds of things I can pack up cold on a paleo diet and have it still taste good. Probably would have helped if I planned ahead a little more. Oh well, live and learn.
I just wanna give a quick shout-out to Camelbak and Brita. Without them, I would never be able to get my prescribed amount of water. I'm one of those people that is SO picky about what my water tastes like. If I taste even the slightest hint of chlorine, I probably won't drink it. So I went out and got a Camelbak water bottle that has a filter in it and I also have those individual Brita water bottles. Suddenly walking around without a water bottle seems weird. For anyone else that's really picky about water, I highly recommend them. I usually find myself using the Camelbak as a chin rest when I'm bored on the computer so I just instinctively end up drinking more than I thought. Wonderful inventions.
I won't be blogging over the weekend, mostly because there won't be free Wi-Fi, but I'll be back on Monday!
Week 1 of the Paleo Challenge is almost done, onto Week 2!
So today I woke up with a LOT to do. It's kind of nice being on normal human being hours and getting up at 8. I personally don't mind it. Stayed in bed for another 2 hours doing some studying. Got up and realized I had no freaking clue what to have for breakfast. I spent so much time agonizing over what to eat when I wouldn't be home that I didn't plan for when I would be home (#mealprepproblems). So I did what any normal college student would do and went scrounging. It was my last day as a college student, had to go out with a bang. Had myself a piece of frittata, a boiled egg, some ham and a couple strawberries. It's as balanced of a meal as it was going to get. Skipped lunch since I had an exam and errands to do (and also had no clue what the heck to eat). Came home and had a snack of turkey jerky and an apple with almond butter while I finished up a final paper. Dinner was a chicken breast with grilled eggplant and sweet potato fries.
Had to drop Mack off at the vet's for the weekend while I'm gone. Swear to God they thought I was crazy. Had his food all packed up, not to mention plenty of treats and of course a tennis ball. I was a wreck. He on the other hand thought life was just dandy. "Peace out mom! This lady seems nice!" "Yeah ok kid, let's remember 4 months ago where you were wrapped around my legs."
Came home and got occupied with prepping food for the trip, doing laundry and packing. I have to say I admire people that can plan a whole trip's worth of meals. Granted, they probably have a refrigerator or a way to keep their food fresh the whole time. I'm pretty sure I'm staying at one of those hotels where they charge you for looking at the refrigerator. So I compromised and made enough meals for tomorrow with the intention of staying as strict as possible Saturday and Sunday. I know that's going to be nearly impossible, but I'm definitely not going to go off and completely lose control. Breakfast is going to be the last piece of frittata, the last boiled egg and a couple pieces of ham. Lunch is an epic salad with romaine lettuce, carrots, tomato and canned salmon with olive oil. Snacks/some combination of dinner are going to be cut up strawberries, blueberries, leftover grilled salmon and sweet potato fries, and carrots with almond butter. None of those constitute as much of a "dinner" but I'm never really that hungry after long roadtrips anyway. I just really feel out of my element with this one. I'm good at eating cold pasta, or cold pizza or cold whatever was in the fridge that I could throw in a Tupperware container. But I'm kind of mind blown trying to figure out what kinds of things I can pack up cold on a paleo diet and have it still taste good. Probably would have helped if I planned ahead a little more. Oh well, live and learn.
I just wanna give a quick shout-out to Camelbak and Brita. Without them, I would never be able to get my prescribed amount of water. I'm one of those people that is SO picky about what my water tastes like. If I taste even the slightest hint of chlorine, I probably won't drink it. So I went out and got a Camelbak water bottle that has a filter in it and I also have those individual Brita water bottles. Suddenly walking around without a water bottle seems weird. For anyone else that's really picky about water, I highly recommend them. I usually find myself using the Camelbak as a chin rest when I'm bored on the computer so I just instinctively end up drinking more than I thought. Wonderful inventions.
I won't be blogging over the weekend, mostly because there won't be free Wi-Fi, but I'll be back on Monday!
Week 1 of the Paleo Challenge is almost done, onto Week 2!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
I really need to stop asking myself this question...because it inevitably gets answered.
Today was decent. Got up early enough that I could take my time getting ready for work. Had my breakfast of frittata and chicken sausages before I left. Packed up my lunch of the rest of the shepherd's pie and a snack of carrots. Got to work, did the things that needed to be done, and then hid myself in the conference room for some homework time. Had a couple hours of peace before the calls started coming in and then I was just running for the rest of the afternoon. I was supposed to get out at 5 and we got a call pretty much at 3:30, which is practically a big present wrapped with a bow because by the time you get them to the hospital and write your chart, hey, it's time to go! Well the EMS gods decided I wasn't going to have it that easy and I ended up with a difficult patient and one heck of a chart to write.
Finally got home an hour late and by that time I really wasn't up for doing anything creative in the kitchen. I STILL had that homework to do and knew I had to get cracking on it so I made breakfast for dinner. I scrambled up the last few eggs I had and made them with a little ground beef. As simple as it was, it was really good. It's now 1 in the morning and the paper continues to not write itself but at least my tummy gets to be happy. Was kind of an "eggy" day but I figured one day wouldn't kill me.
Something I've been noticing the past few days is that I'm tending to go for the fruit a lot. While fruit is great and has nutrients up the wazoo, it still has a ton of sugar. Probably the reason why I keep turning to it. It's not like I'm going too crazy and eating oranges every 5 minutes, I've been limiting myself to 2 servings daily, but I may need to cut it back to 1.
The thing that worries me about cutting down on the fruit is that I already crash sometime in the mid-afternoon. I thought it was just a one time thing yesterday after having to get up at 5:30 in the morning, but I got it again today after getting 8 hours of sleep last night. I guess I'm a little concerned that I'll crash even harder if I take out the one source of sugar that I've got. I know my calories are decent since I'm now getting in 3 meals a day so other than that, I don't know what's causing it. I'd rather not turn to caffeine since that's just a downward spiral I don't feel like experiencing. I'm going to give it a few more days just to see if it's me getting used to being strict.
Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day. Finishing up my last two classes so I can officially be a college graduate (YAY!) on top of massive amounts of errands. I was originally signed up to go to the early morning crossfit class but I absolutely have to focus on getting this school stuff done and over with. Maybe if one of the evening sessions open up I'll go to that.
Time to do that thing called sleeping (because I actually do that now!). G'night all!
Today was decent. Got up early enough that I could take my time getting ready for work. Had my breakfast of frittata and chicken sausages before I left. Packed up my lunch of the rest of the shepherd's pie and a snack of carrots. Got to work, did the things that needed to be done, and then hid myself in the conference room for some homework time. Had a couple hours of peace before the calls started coming in and then I was just running for the rest of the afternoon. I was supposed to get out at 5 and we got a call pretty much at 3:30, which is practically a big present wrapped with a bow because by the time you get them to the hospital and write your chart, hey, it's time to go! Well the EMS gods decided I wasn't going to have it that easy and I ended up with a difficult patient and one heck of a chart to write.
Finally got home an hour late and by that time I really wasn't up for doing anything creative in the kitchen. I STILL had that homework to do and knew I had to get cracking on it so I made breakfast for dinner. I scrambled up the last few eggs I had and made them with a little ground beef. As simple as it was, it was really good. It's now 1 in the morning and the paper continues to not write itself but at least my tummy gets to be happy. Was kind of an "eggy" day but I figured one day wouldn't kill me.
Something I've been noticing the past few days is that I'm tending to go for the fruit a lot. While fruit is great and has nutrients up the wazoo, it still has a ton of sugar. Probably the reason why I keep turning to it. It's not like I'm going too crazy and eating oranges every 5 minutes, I've been limiting myself to 2 servings daily, but I may need to cut it back to 1.
The thing that worries me about cutting down on the fruit is that I already crash sometime in the mid-afternoon. I thought it was just a one time thing yesterday after having to get up at 5:30 in the morning, but I got it again today after getting 8 hours of sleep last night. I guess I'm a little concerned that I'll crash even harder if I take out the one source of sugar that I've got. I know my calories are decent since I'm now getting in 3 meals a day so other than that, I don't know what's causing it. I'd rather not turn to caffeine since that's just a downward spiral I don't feel like experiencing. I'm going to give it a few more days just to see if it's me getting used to being strict.
Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day. Finishing up my last two classes so I can officially be a college graduate (YAY!) on top of massive amounts of errands. I was originally signed up to go to the early morning crossfit class but I absolutely have to focus on getting this school stuff done and over with. Maybe if one of the evening sessions open up I'll go to that.
Time to do that thing called sleeping (because I actually do that now!). G'night all!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Temptations Galore
Today was uneventful. Worked 07-18. I was up and ready to go at 5:45, which was highly unusual considering I got to sleep at like 2.
I packed my bag of food which included a breakfast of 2 chicken sausages and a slice of the western frittata, a container of the shepherd's pie for lunch, as well as snacks of a small container of cut up strawberries and blueberries, carrots, and turkey jerky. I figured since it was an 11 hour shift, and sometimes they get busy, I would prepare for hunger. The frittata and the shepherd's pie were delicious and filling, the shepherd's pie especially. I definitely didn't have any issues with feeling hungry today. I had my fruit with lunch and sometime around mid-afternoon I had the carrots. I had dinner when I got home which was two chicken drumsticks, steamed broccoli and an orange.
Day 2 of keeping up with my water intake went very well. I've been peeing my brains out, but I don't feel as bloated. I've definitely hit that point where I legitimately just feel good. I think it's because I got my body used to this kind of lifestyle a few weeks ago so it's not as hard getting back to it, even without the cheats.
The tough part of today was definitely being at work. I almost feel like an addict - my home and the box are my safe havens. No unhealthy food to be found. But then I get out into the real world and there's sugar, and Wavy Lays, and Chinese food and all I wanted to do was curl up into a corner and hide. I was actually fine at base because the only time I spent in the kitchen was to either get my own food or refill the water bottle. Trust me, I thought about those animal crackers long and hard, but resisted. It was the trips to Wegmans that killed me. I didn't get anything, but walking past the chocolate chip cookies was rough.
So I'm going on a roadtrip to DC on Friday and coming back Sunday. It's a very short amount of time, but there's going to be plenty of opportunity for cheating. I know that I'm not going to get all my points for those days just because I will end up cheating at least once, but I plan on cheating as little as possible, more for my mentality on this whole thing than anything else. I feel like I'm using this trip as a way to test myself and really see how far I'm willing to go to stay healthy. Not to mention my friend told me I don't have the willpower to watch him eat Chik-Fil-A without getting some myself. Watch me, bro! With that said, I'm going to spend tomorrow looking up some treats that I can bring that will sustain me as much as possible and won't go bad immediately. The biggest turn off about this paleo thing is the almond flour. It's so expensive! So I think I'm going to try making my own. It's basically grinding up almonds, how hard could it be? If I'm successful at that, I can make things like muffins or pancakes, which would be easy to store in a Ziploc container and bring with me. I'll keep everyone posted!
Short post tonight since I have to work again tomorrow. Luckily it's an 8 hour shift so hopefully the animal crackers won't have enough time to entice me. Damn zebras.
I packed my bag of food which included a breakfast of 2 chicken sausages and a slice of the western frittata, a container of the shepherd's pie for lunch, as well as snacks of a small container of cut up strawberries and blueberries, carrots, and turkey jerky. I figured since it was an 11 hour shift, and sometimes they get busy, I would prepare for hunger. The frittata and the shepherd's pie were delicious and filling, the shepherd's pie especially. I definitely didn't have any issues with feeling hungry today. I had my fruit with lunch and sometime around mid-afternoon I had the carrots. I had dinner when I got home which was two chicken drumsticks, steamed broccoli and an orange.
Day 2 of keeping up with my water intake went very well. I've been peeing my brains out, but I don't feel as bloated. I've definitely hit that point where I legitimately just feel good. I think it's because I got my body used to this kind of lifestyle a few weeks ago so it's not as hard getting back to it, even without the cheats.
The tough part of today was definitely being at work. I almost feel like an addict - my home and the box are my safe havens. No unhealthy food to be found. But then I get out into the real world and there's sugar, and Wavy Lays, and Chinese food and all I wanted to do was curl up into a corner and hide. I was actually fine at base because the only time I spent in the kitchen was to either get my own food or refill the water bottle. Trust me, I thought about those animal crackers long and hard, but resisted. It was the trips to Wegmans that killed me. I didn't get anything, but walking past the chocolate chip cookies was rough.
So I'm going on a roadtrip to DC on Friday and coming back Sunday. It's a very short amount of time, but there's going to be plenty of opportunity for cheating. I know that I'm not going to get all my points for those days just because I will end up cheating at least once, but I plan on cheating as little as possible, more for my mentality on this whole thing than anything else. I feel like I'm using this trip as a way to test myself and really see how far I'm willing to go to stay healthy. Not to mention my friend told me I don't have the willpower to watch him eat Chik-Fil-A without getting some myself. Watch me, bro! With that said, I'm going to spend tomorrow looking up some treats that I can bring that will sustain me as much as possible and won't go bad immediately. The biggest turn off about this paleo thing is the almond flour. It's so expensive! So I think I'm going to try making my own. It's basically grinding up almonds, how hard could it be? If I'm successful at that, I can make things like muffins or pancakes, which would be easy to store in a Ziploc container and bring with me. I'll keep everyone posted!
Short post tonight since I have to work again tomorrow. Luckily it's an 8 hour shift so hopefully the animal crackers won't have enough time to entice me. Damn zebras.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Damn You Water Baby!
Wow, busy busy day today. Got up at 10:30, made breakfast, and got my butt to campus to finish off an online final. Got that done with 2 hours to spare, came back home for a late lunch, prepped a little for dinner and then ran off to the gym. Got back from that and for the past 2 and a half hours I've been in the kitchen getting food ready for this week. Now I'm finally in bed (and have to be awake in 7 hours - FFFFFFFF).
So, anywho.
Breakfast today was scrambled eggs with an orange on the side. Didn't want to go too heavy since I knew lunch would be coming a few hours after. Didn't bring any snacks with me to campus since I figured I'd only be a little while. It ended up being a little longer than expected so I was a little hungry by the time I came home. Lunch was grilled asparagus wrapped in deli ham, which actually ended up being a lot tastier than I expected! Along with that I had a couple slices of tomato and an apple with almond butter. Literally, after eating almond butter, I will never go back to peanut butter...ever. So incredibly delicious. It actually kind of reminds me of nutella.
Before I went to the gym, I started prepping things for when I was going to cook later. I cut up some sweet potatoes, carrots and onions for a shepherd's pie. I also boiled some eggs to have on hand as snacks. While chopping things up is incredibly cathartic, I didn't feel like dealing with it several hours later.
The workout today wasn't too bad. Warm-up was 8 rounds of tabata rowing, 1 lap of ultimate stretch, 1 lap of inchworm and 20 ham to plows. I'm definitely starting to beast through rowing which feels great.
Strength:
5-5-3-3-1-1-1
Deadlift, one set every 2 minutes. I was so psyched to be doing 1 RM's with deadlifts. I maxed out at 185 pounds. Can I just deadlift my patients from now on?
MetCon:
3 rounds of 40 wallballs, 120 jump ropes. Time cap at 15 minutes.
Wall balls are tough. They're pretty similar to those clusters I was doing Saturday where you're in a squat position and come back up and throw something above your head. The idea is to pace yourself. A lot of us take the number of reps and cut them into smaller sets. Like I was doing sets of 10 at first, but once I got tired it cut down to 5. There were definitely a few moments where I caught the ball with my face. Finished all that in 14:24 and you know what I have to say to that? I freaking finished and I'm here to tell the tale!
The real troubling part of today was the water intake. I went back to my half my body weight in fluid ounces thing. Been carrying my water bottle with me everywhere. So now I have water baby. But try having water baby and jump roping. There were definitely some almost awkward moments with that one. Literally every jump was like "Oh no."
So meal prepping went REALLY well tonight. I came home and made some delicious things. One was a paleo shepherd's pie, which was grassfed ground beef, carrots, onions and mashed sweet potatoes. I seasoned everything with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and black pepper. The mashed potatoes were made with unsweetened almond milk and olive oil. It turned out so yummy! You basically saute the carrots and onions together for a few minutes, then add the meat and cook it until there's no more pink. The potatoes you make separately. Once everything is cooked, you put it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
For dinner I made seasoned chicken drumsticks with mashed cauliflower. Mashed cauliflower is actually pretty good. You just steam the cauliflower and then mash it up with a fork and some almond milk. It kind of starts to get gross when it starts cooling off so you need to eat it fast. This was my first time eating organic chicken. Very tasty!
I have work for the next two days, so I'll be bringing Shepherd's pie and the leftover chicken with some steamed broccoli. I also made a Western Frittata, which had peppers, onions and tomatoes. I've never made a frittata before so it was definitely an adventure. You cook up the veggies, then pour the eggs over them, reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, then you put the whole pan in the oven until everything sets. It looks good so hopefully it ends up being yummy. I'll bring that with me for breakfast along with a couple chicken sausages. Needless to say, I'm ready to go! No Cheetohs for me tomorrow!
All in all I think I did really well today. 3 full meals, plenty of water, and exercise. Perfect day in my book. So I realized that I lied about the point scheme with the challenge. I was going off of what we were told in the eBook they sent us. Everyday, you can earn up to 9 core points. They come from eating real food, no sugar, no alcohol, no dairy, no legumes, no processed stuff, drinking half your body weight in fluid ounces, and taking fish oil. If you don't follow one of those guidelines, you won't get a point. Then there's bonus points such as exercising, getting 8+ hours of sleep, going to a Paleo event with the gym, and bringing a dish to a Paleo potluck. So far I'm doing really well! Don't know about the fish oil part since I'm not taking that right now, but maybe I'll grab some at some point.
I don't know how I'm going to get up at 5:30. I'm incredibly not tired. Probably just going to watch Vampire Diaries until I get sleepy.
G'night all!
So, anywho.
Breakfast today was scrambled eggs with an orange on the side. Didn't want to go too heavy since I knew lunch would be coming a few hours after. Didn't bring any snacks with me to campus since I figured I'd only be a little while. It ended up being a little longer than expected so I was a little hungry by the time I came home. Lunch was grilled asparagus wrapped in deli ham, which actually ended up being a lot tastier than I expected! Along with that I had a couple slices of tomato and an apple with almond butter. Literally, after eating almond butter, I will never go back to peanut butter...ever. So incredibly delicious. It actually kind of reminds me of nutella.
Before I went to the gym, I started prepping things for when I was going to cook later. I cut up some sweet potatoes, carrots and onions for a shepherd's pie. I also boiled some eggs to have on hand as snacks. While chopping things up is incredibly cathartic, I didn't feel like dealing with it several hours later.
The workout today wasn't too bad. Warm-up was 8 rounds of tabata rowing, 1 lap of ultimate stretch, 1 lap of inchworm and 20 ham to plows. I'm definitely starting to beast through rowing which feels great.
Strength:
5-5-3-3-1-1-1
Deadlift, one set every 2 minutes. I was so psyched to be doing 1 RM's with deadlifts. I maxed out at 185 pounds. Can I just deadlift my patients from now on?
MetCon:
3 rounds of 40 wallballs, 120 jump ropes. Time cap at 15 minutes.
Wall balls are tough. They're pretty similar to those clusters I was doing Saturday where you're in a squat position and come back up and throw something above your head. The idea is to pace yourself. A lot of us take the number of reps and cut them into smaller sets. Like I was doing sets of 10 at first, but once I got tired it cut down to 5. There were definitely a few moments where I caught the ball with my face. Finished all that in 14:24 and you know what I have to say to that? I freaking finished and I'm here to tell the tale!
The real troubling part of today was the water intake. I went back to my half my body weight in fluid ounces thing. Been carrying my water bottle with me everywhere. So now I have water baby. But try having water baby and jump roping. There were definitely some almost awkward moments with that one. Literally every jump was like "Oh no."
So meal prepping went REALLY well tonight. I came home and made some delicious things. One was a paleo shepherd's pie, which was grassfed ground beef, carrots, onions and mashed sweet potatoes. I seasoned everything with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and black pepper. The mashed potatoes were made with unsweetened almond milk and olive oil. It turned out so yummy! You basically saute the carrots and onions together for a few minutes, then add the meat and cook it until there's no more pink. The potatoes you make separately. Once everything is cooked, you put it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
I have work for the next two days, so I'll be bringing Shepherd's pie and the leftover chicken with some steamed broccoli. I also made a Western Frittata, which had peppers, onions and tomatoes. I've never made a frittata before so it was definitely an adventure. You cook up the veggies, then pour the eggs over them, reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, then you put the whole pan in the oven until everything sets. It looks good so hopefully it ends up being yummy. I'll bring that with me for breakfast along with a couple chicken sausages. Needless to say, I'm ready to go! No Cheetohs for me tomorrow!
All in all I think I did really well today. 3 full meals, plenty of water, and exercise. Perfect day in my book. So I realized that I lied about the point scheme with the challenge. I was going off of what we were told in the eBook they sent us. Everyday, you can earn up to 9 core points. They come from eating real food, no sugar, no alcohol, no dairy, no legumes, no processed stuff, drinking half your body weight in fluid ounces, and taking fish oil. If you don't follow one of those guidelines, you won't get a point. Then there's bonus points such as exercising, getting 8+ hours of sleep, going to a Paleo event with the gym, and bringing a dish to a Paleo potluck. So far I'm doing really well! Don't know about the fish oil part since I'm not taking that right now, but maybe I'll grab some at some point.
I don't know how I'm going to get up at 5:30. I'm incredibly not tired. Probably just going to watch Vampire Diaries until I get sleepy.
G'night all!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Are Pickles Paleo?
So I promised I would tell you guys the details on the challenge that I'm doing...
Essentially we're going for 6 weeks, ending on March 30th, strict paleo, no cheats. Paleo essentially means all natural and no preservatives. The main food groups that it focuses on are protein and fat, and teaching your body to utilize fat instead of carbs. I'll still be taking in carbs, but they won't be from grains. They'll be from the naturally occurring carbs in the veggies and fruits that I'll be eating. I won't be eating any kind of grain, starchy food, dairy, legume, processed crap, sugary food/drinks, or alcohol for 6 weeks.
There's several different forms of "accountability" going on with this challenge. The name of the game is to lose as many inches/pounds as possible, but we'll also be keeping point logs as well as tracking our performance in workouts through a baseline workout (which we did yesterday) and a workout on March 30th.
The point logs are really how you're going to be able to see how you're doing on a day to day basis. You start your day off with 100 points, and you add or subtract points from there depending on whether you cheat or do really well. The things that get you extra points are drinking half your body weight in water, resisting temptations like carbs, dairy, alcohol, sugar, and processed stuff, as well as exercising, getting 8+ hours of sleep, and going to a Paleo Potluck event. Obviously, if you succumb to any of the temptations, you lose points. Every week I have to submit my point logs to one of the coaches and she keeps the final tally of points. This is probably going to be the one thing that truly keeps me motivated so hopefully I'll stay on track!
As far as the eating goes, my main challenge is going to be getting myself on a schedule and making sure I meal prep. My plan is to go food shopping every weekend. I'll be making a trip to the Rochester Public Market to pick up fresh veggies and meat. Our coaches were telling us about a farm that sells grassfed meat for a reasonable price so I'll definitely be checking that out! And after that anything I can't get there, I'll just go to Wegmans. I used to shop for every 2 weeks, but it either left me begging for variety or stuck with some spoiled veggies, so I'm going to switch to the 1 week schedule. The biggest thing I now have to focus on is coordinating my sleep schedule and eating schedule. I really need to start having 3 meals per day with 1 or 2 snacks. No more getting up at noon. It would be ok if I consistently got up at noon and that was my life on a daily basis, but there are those days where I get up at a decent time and have breakfast and then just be starving for the rest of the day because my stomach realizes what I've been forcing it to miss out on. In fact, after I finish this, I will be going straight to bed.
Went food shopping today and stocked up on a lot of veggies and just kind of staple type stuff. I have a lot of fish still and some chicken so I decided to have those this week. I'll probably alternate between chicken and fish. The hard thing is lunch. I have no creativity when it comes to lunch. I grabbed some canned tuna and salmon that I can throw over a salad. Other than that I get the feeling lunch is going to end up being leftovers from dinner. I also got some beef and turkey jerky (nitrate free) for snacks. I'm going to have to figure out how to make it on my own since that stuff is expensive. I also grabbed some frozen fruit and almond milk for smoothies in the morning if I don't want eggs. I'm pretty psyched about this week. I'll be keeping it pretty simple since I'm going to the conference at the end of the week but there will be some delicious food making up in this house! Now to just get my water intake back up...
The more and more I think about it, I'm perfectly ok with having a lot of March off. Sucks because working means I get money for food, but if I'm going to make this a lifestyle, I want the time to get used to it. There's so many recipes I can't wait to try out, but the thought of having hours to spend in the kitchen is a pipe dream with my current schedule. Don't get me wrong, the simple stuff is great, but I like having the time to spend. I'm a woman, cooking is cathartic. Now if only I had the significant other to do the dishes for me. I'm going through recipes right now and there are just go many that I'm so excited for. A lot of them are those recipes that you make in a large container and have a lot of leftovers. My favorite! Means I don't have to worry about making something for every meal that week.
So, my Day 1 is down, and I'm not begging for a bag of chips yet. We kept things simple today. I slept off last night (get your mind out of the gutter, I was driving the gas ambulance that could through the snow), woke up, said goodbye to my friend since he had to leave us today, and went food shopping. Had a snack of a couple pieces of beef jerky and an orange. Spent a good 4 hours cleaning the house (my back hurts like a beeyotch now). Dinner was grilled asparagus and salmon with Old Bay and black pepper. I also threw in a couple tomato slices since I hadn't really eaten all day. Ended up sleeping through my alarm so the gym didn't happen this morning :( Honestly, it's probably for the best because every single muscle hurts right now. In Crossfit, we don't have leg day or arm day or cute little ab day. We have "you're going to learn how to use your ass, arms, calves and abs all at once" day. Cleaning the house and giving the dog a bath ended up being just enough exercise for me.
Tomorrow I'll probably end up meal prepping a little bit once I finish my online final so I'll post any recipes I try out! I'm thinking Shepherd's Pie but we'll see.
Goodnight all!
Essentially we're going for 6 weeks, ending on March 30th, strict paleo, no cheats. Paleo essentially means all natural and no preservatives. The main food groups that it focuses on are protein and fat, and teaching your body to utilize fat instead of carbs. I'll still be taking in carbs, but they won't be from grains. They'll be from the naturally occurring carbs in the veggies and fruits that I'll be eating. I won't be eating any kind of grain, starchy food, dairy, legume, processed crap, sugary food/drinks, or alcohol for 6 weeks.
There's several different forms of "accountability" going on with this challenge. The name of the game is to lose as many inches/pounds as possible, but we'll also be keeping point logs as well as tracking our performance in workouts through a baseline workout (which we did yesterday) and a workout on March 30th.
The point logs are really how you're going to be able to see how you're doing on a day to day basis. You start your day off with 100 points, and you add or subtract points from there depending on whether you cheat or do really well. The things that get you extra points are drinking half your body weight in water, resisting temptations like carbs, dairy, alcohol, sugar, and processed stuff, as well as exercising, getting 8+ hours of sleep, and going to a Paleo Potluck event. Obviously, if you succumb to any of the temptations, you lose points. Every week I have to submit my point logs to one of the coaches and she keeps the final tally of points. This is probably going to be the one thing that truly keeps me motivated so hopefully I'll stay on track!
As far as the eating goes, my main challenge is going to be getting myself on a schedule and making sure I meal prep. My plan is to go food shopping every weekend. I'll be making a trip to the Rochester Public Market to pick up fresh veggies and meat. Our coaches were telling us about a farm that sells grassfed meat for a reasonable price so I'll definitely be checking that out! And after that anything I can't get there, I'll just go to Wegmans. I used to shop for every 2 weeks, but it either left me begging for variety or stuck with some spoiled veggies, so I'm going to switch to the 1 week schedule. The biggest thing I now have to focus on is coordinating my sleep schedule and eating schedule. I really need to start having 3 meals per day with 1 or 2 snacks. No more getting up at noon. It would be ok if I consistently got up at noon and that was my life on a daily basis, but there are those days where I get up at a decent time and have breakfast and then just be starving for the rest of the day because my stomach realizes what I've been forcing it to miss out on. In fact, after I finish this, I will be going straight to bed.
Went food shopping today and stocked up on a lot of veggies and just kind of staple type stuff. I have a lot of fish still and some chicken so I decided to have those this week. I'll probably alternate between chicken and fish. The hard thing is lunch. I have no creativity when it comes to lunch. I grabbed some canned tuna and salmon that I can throw over a salad. Other than that I get the feeling lunch is going to end up being leftovers from dinner. I also got some beef and turkey jerky (nitrate free) for snacks. I'm going to have to figure out how to make it on my own since that stuff is expensive. I also grabbed some frozen fruit and almond milk for smoothies in the morning if I don't want eggs. I'm pretty psyched about this week. I'll be keeping it pretty simple since I'm going to the conference at the end of the week but there will be some delicious food making up in this house! Now to just get my water intake back up...
The more and more I think about it, I'm perfectly ok with having a lot of March off. Sucks because working means I get money for food, but if I'm going to make this a lifestyle, I want the time to get used to it. There's so many recipes I can't wait to try out, but the thought of having hours to spend in the kitchen is a pipe dream with my current schedule. Don't get me wrong, the simple stuff is great, but I like having the time to spend. I'm a woman, cooking is cathartic. Now if only I had the significant other to do the dishes for me. I'm going through recipes right now and there are just go many that I'm so excited for. A lot of them are those recipes that you make in a large container and have a lot of leftovers. My favorite! Means I don't have to worry about making something for every meal that week.
So, my Day 1 is down, and I'm not begging for a bag of chips yet. We kept things simple today. I slept off last night (get your mind out of the gutter, I was driving the gas ambulance that could through the snow), woke up, said goodbye to my friend since he had to leave us today, and went food shopping. Had a snack of a couple pieces of beef jerky and an orange. Spent a good 4 hours cleaning the house (my back hurts like a beeyotch now). Dinner was grilled asparagus and salmon with Old Bay and black pepper. I also threw in a couple tomato slices since I hadn't really eaten all day. Ended up sleeping through my alarm so the gym didn't happen this morning :( Honestly, it's probably for the best because every single muscle hurts right now. In Crossfit, we don't have leg day or arm day or cute little ab day. We have "you're going to learn how to use your ass, arms, calves and abs all at once" day. Cleaning the house and giving the dog a bath ended up being just enough exercise for me.
Tomorrow I'll probably end up meal prepping a little bit once I finish my online final so I'll post any recipes I try out! I'm thinking Shepherd's Pie but we'll see.
Goodnight all!
Saturday, February 16, 2013
And So It Begins...
So the Paleo Challenge has officially started. Honestly, my poor digestive system couldn't be happier. Mentally I'm scared shitless. I know my 3 week "challenge" went fairly well. I still cheated a few times but it wasn't bad. But now it's 6 weeks, no cheats allowed or you lose points, and now my coaches have my measurements (oi vay). Not even blogging can come close to the amount of accountability I'm up against for the next 43 days, but it'll be good for me. "Builds character" as I like to say.
But let's rewind a little bit.
So this week got a little better. Got a surprise visit from one of my best friends that graduated and got sent overseas for work. And with him came another best friend that I haven't seen in awhile because she moved back to Buffalo after graduating. Needless to say, it was good to get caught up. I'm still stressed and ready to rip my hair out, but at this point I'm just rolling with the punches on top of getting in an average of one meal per day that usually consists of nothing good for me. Oh yeah, taking care of myself this week was at an all time high.
Went to the gym Friday morning.
Can't remember what the warm-up was but the strength component was hang cleans. This is what they look like:
There's a lot of similarity between a hang clean and a power clean except the power clean actually starts on the floor, hang cleans start around your knees. So we did 5 sets of 3 of those, I maxed out at 83 pounds. Olympic lifts really aren't my strongest lifts even though theoretically they should be.
MetCon (20 minutes):
"Cindy"
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats
Really doesn't sound that bad, but try doing it for 20 minutes. I got about 8 and a half rounds in, which for me is phenomenal. I think I'm starting to learn how to pace myself because I didn't stop moving for that entire 20 minutes. Just kinda kept plugging on through. There were some girls in there that beasted through it and I was just amazed. Regardless, whoever this Cindy chick is sure knows how to torment a person.
Spent the rest of the day running around and working. Normal day in my life I suppose. This morning was the real killer. I've been pretty sore for the past few days since my recovery time has kind of increased lately and going two days in a row when I was already sore hurts like a mother. Went back to the gym this morning to get initial measurements done and get in a baseline workout. I have to say, my measurements killed my mojo a bit. I don't know if I measured myself wrong or what but I was off by a bit. I undershot in some areas and overshot in others. Not to mention, my freaking scale has been lying to me! Either that or I gained 8 pounds while driving to the gym. I was so pissed and kind of deflated. We also did Body Fat percentages and BMI - we're just not even going to talk about that one. Honestly, I've already forgotten my numbers. Most people get motivated by them, but I only get a short burst of motivation out of it. A number really isn't enough to keep me in the game and I think that's where my mistakes of previous diets started. So I'm not even going to worry about it. I'm going to do the challenge and whatever happens at the end is what happens. If I can make it through 6 weeks of strict paleo, I've already won.
Baseline Workout:
Strength:
As many unbroken pull-ups as possible, recording if you used assistance or if you did strict or kipping pull-ups. I got through 10 strict pull-ups with an assistance band. Not too bad.
MetCon:
12-9-6
Kettlebell Swings
Clusters
Burpee box jumps
I literally almost cried during this. I've never almost cried while working out in my life. I've whined, stopped, pushed through it, or said Eff You, but never cried. I had a 26 pound kettlebell, 53 pounds on my barbell and a 16" box. So I've never done a cluster, which is a squat clean and a thruster in the same movement. I tried finding a picture but I couldn't. So what you do is you do your squat clean, where you end up in a squat position. From there you stand up while pushing the barbell over your head. It's kind of like an overhead squat, but you're not holding the barbell above your head the entire time. Those hurt like a bitch. Not to mention, 12 reps just starts pushing that threshold between being able to muscle through something and needing to start using your stamina. And then there were the burpee box jumps. I can do a burpee and I can now do a 16" box jump. Put those two together and you're asking for trouble. It's essentially the same thing as a burpee pull-up. You do the burpee, stand up, and jump onto the box. Now as someone that just learned how to do a 16" box jump, this is terrifying. After watching my partner fall off the box and roll onto the floor, I wasn't mentally prepared to be falling off of anything. In the end I got through the set of 12 and the set of 9 and halfway through the 6 in 12 minutes. Wasn't too god awful but I'm looking forward to some improvements.
And because my crazy self just can't get enough of the torture, I'm going again tomorrow morning. Oh yeah, that's happening. I guess I'm more doing it just to see how I do if I start going more times a week. Obviously I'm probably not going to go 3 days straight all the time, but I think it could be a good test. We'll see how it goes.
I'm at work and exhausted so I'll be posting more details about the challenge and Day 1 tomorrow!
But let's rewind a little bit.
So this week got a little better. Got a surprise visit from one of my best friends that graduated and got sent overseas for work. And with him came another best friend that I haven't seen in awhile because she moved back to Buffalo after graduating. Needless to say, it was good to get caught up. I'm still stressed and ready to rip my hair out, but at this point I'm just rolling with the punches on top of getting in an average of one meal per day that usually consists of nothing good for me. Oh yeah, taking care of myself this week was at an all time high.
Went to the gym Friday morning.
Can't remember what the warm-up was but the strength component was hang cleans. This is what they look like:
There's a lot of similarity between a hang clean and a power clean except the power clean actually starts on the floor, hang cleans start around your knees. So we did 5 sets of 3 of those, I maxed out at 83 pounds. Olympic lifts really aren't my strongest lifts even though theoretically they should be.
MetCon (20 minutes):
"Cindy"
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats
Really doesn't sound that bad, but try doing it for 20 minutes. I got about 8 and a half rounds in, which for me is phenomenal. I think I'm starting to learn how to pace myself because I didn't stop moving for that entire 20 minutes. Just kinda kept plugging on through. There were some girls in there that beasted through it and I was just amazed. Regardless, whoever this Cindy chick is sure knows how to torment a person.
Spent the rest of the day running around and working. Normal day in my life I suppose. This morning was the real killer. I've been pretty sore for the past few days since my recovery time has kind of increased lately and going two days in a row when I was already sore hurts like a mother. Went back to the gym this morning to get initial measurements done and get in a baseline workout. I have to say, my measurements killed my mojo a bit. I don't know if I measured myself wrong or what but I was off by a bit. I undershot in some areas and overshot in others. Not to mention, my freaking scale has been lying to me! Either that or I gained 8 pounds while driving to the gym. I was so pissed and kind of deflated. We also did Body Fat percentages and BMI - we're just not even going to talk about that one. Honestly, I've already forgotten my numbers. Most people get motivated by them, but I only get a short burst of motivation out of it. A number really isn't enough to keep me in the game and I think that's where my mistakes of previous diets started. So I'm not even going to worry about it. I'm going to do the challenge and whatever happens at the end is what happens. If I can make it through 6 weeks of strict paleo, I've already won.
Baseline Workout:
Strength:
As many unbroken pull-ups as possible, recording if you used assistance or if you did strict or kipping pull-ups. I got through 10 strict pull-ups with an assistance band. Not too bad.
MetCon:
12-9-6
Kettlebell Swings
Clusters
Burpee box jumps
I literally almost cried during this. I've never almost cried while working out in my life. I've whined, stopped, pushed through it, or said Eff You, but never cried. I had a 26 pound kettlebell, 53 pounds on my barbell and a 16" box. So I've never done a cluster, which is a squat clean and a thruster in the same movement. I tried finding a picture but I couldn't. So what you do is you do your squat clean, where you end up in a squat position. From there you stand up while pushing the barbell over your head. It's kind of like an overhead squat, but you're not holding the barbell above your head the entire time. Those hurt like a bitch. Not to mention, 12 reps just starts pushing that threshold between being able to muscle through something and needing to start using your stamina. And then there were the burpee box jumps. I can do a burpee and I can now do a 16" box jump. Put those two together and you're asking for trouble. It's essentially the same thing as a burpee pull-up. You do the burpee, stand up, and jump onto the box. Now as someone that just learned how to do a 16" box jump, this is terrifying. After watching my partner fall off the box and roll onto the floor, I wasn't mentally prepared to be falling off of anything. In the end I got through the set of 12 and the set of 9 and halfway through the 6 in 12 minutes. Wasn't too god awful but I'm looking forward to some improvements.
And because my crazy self just can't get enough of the torture, I'm going again tomorrow morning. Oh yeah, that's happening. I guess I'm more doing it just to see how I do if I start going more times a week. Obviously I'm probably not going to go 3 days straight all the time, but I think it could be a good test. We'll see how it goes.
I'm at work and exhausted so I'll be posting more details about the challenge and Day 1 tomorrow!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Don't Get Mad If You're Not Going to Kick Some Ass
Today was a very weird day indeed. Mack was sick again so he had me up way too early. Finally got him to settle down so I could grab a couple more hours before I had to go work out. I should have just made breakfast, as I found out later.
Warm-Up:
8 rounds tabata push-ups
2 laps ultimate stretch (knee to chest, down into a deep lunge)
2 min. olympic squat stretch (lay on your back with your butt against a wall and position your knees so their bent at 90 degrees, kinda like you're having a baby)
It's been awhile since I stretched like that, my hamstrings and hip flexors were so painfully tight!
Strength:
5x3 front squat -- I worked with the same partner from Monday since we have pretty comparable strength. She was having wrist problems and ended up doing back squats so she could go up in weight with me. I finally maxed out at 115 pounds.
Skill:
4x15 med ball cleans (AKA squat cleans) -- so I hate squat cleans. Hate them hate them hate them. I may have mentioned them before, but they look a lot like this:
I don't know what it is, but everything I do those damn things, I just end up feeling like I want to die. Maybe it's the quick changes from floor to standing to back on the floor. I don't know what it is, but I hate them.
MetCon:
EMOM (every minute on the minute) - 12 rounds
4 broad jumps
10 kettlebell swings
This MetCon was tough. I'm not much of a jumper, if you couldn't guess from my escapades with box jumps, and broad jumping is truly difficult for me. In the end I actually did pretty decent. I would say I was consistently getting a solid 4 feet (maybe it was more than that, I was mostly measuring between the lines in the flooring that they have). My first attempt was me landing on my ass, but after that I think my hips got into the groove of things.
All in all, today wasn't bad. I was definitely in beast mode though. My partner came up to me and asked me what my secret was. I told her I get angry. I take all the baloney and convert it. She looked a little amazed that anger was capable of supercharging my muscles, and while a lot of it was me just having a strong lower body, part of it was anger too. Really it's whatever works for people. It also helps that there may or may not have been a cute guy in class. I'm female after all!
It ended up being a beautiful day outside so Mack and I finally went on a long-awaited walk. He and I have been cooped up in the house with it being so cold so it was nice to finally get out. We got back and I just suddenly felt the need to sleep. So after some mommy and son cuddle time, we took a nap for a couple hours. I'm sure a lot of my sleepiness had to do with the fact that my stomach just felt awful from the Chinese and wine last night. Those two were not meant to be mixed with CrossFit. I was starving during the workout, which has never happened before, but afterwards the thought of food just made me want to vomit. Needless to say, I haven't eaten much today.
I got my schedule for next month and it's a bit...sparse. They really didn't put me on many shifts at all (even the Saturday/Sunday/Monday ones that people don't usually take). Don't really know what's going on with that but I guess I'll just take my vacation that I inadvertently signed up for and spend some time with me. If anything it'll keep me away from a base chock full of Cheetoh's and Pop-Tarts so I guess it can't be all that bad. I'm just going to have to figure out a better gym schedule for April so things don't start interfering with each other too badly.
It's another relaxing night at home with a book and a movie! Gotta hit the books a little bit in the upcoming days but I only have 7 more days left of school! Wish I could be celebrating instead of constantly worrying about everything, but it is what it is. Paleo Challenge starts Saturday!
Warm-Up:
8 rounds tabata push-ups
2 laps ultimate stretch (knee to chest, down into a deep lunge)
2 min. olympic squat stretch (lay on your back with your butt against a wall and position your knees so their bent at 90 degrees, kinda like you're having a baby)
It's been awhile since I stretched like that, my hamstrings and hip flexors were so painfully tight!
Strength:
5x3 front squat -- I worked with the same partner from Monday since we have pretty comparable strength. She was having wrist problems and ended up doing back squats so she could go up in weight with me. I finally maxed out at 115 pounds.
Skill:
4x15 med ball cleans (AKA squat cleans) -- so I hate squat cleans. Hate them hate them hate them. I may have mentioned them before, but they look a lot like this:
MetCon:
EMOM (every minute on the minute) - 12 rounds
4 broad jumps
10 kettlebell swings
This MetCon was tough. I'm not much of a jumper, if you couldn't guess from my escapades with box jumps, and broad jumping is truly difficult for me. In the end I actually did pretty decent. I would say I was consistently getting a solid 4 feet (maybe it was more than that, I was mostly measuring between the lines in the flooring that they have). My first attempt was me landing on my ass, but after that I think my hips got into the groove of things.
All in all, today wasn't bad. I was definitely in beast mode though. My partner came up to me and asked me what my secret was. I told her I get angry. I take all the baloney and convert it. She looked a little amazed that anger was capable of supercharging my muscles, and while a lot of it was me just having a strong lower body, part of it was anger too. Really it's whatever works for people. It also helps that there may or may not have been a cute guy in class. I'm female after all!
It ended up being a beautiful day outside so Mack and I finally went on a long-awaited walk. He and I have been cooped up in the house with it being so cold so it was nice to finally get out. We got back and I just suddenly felt the need to sleep. So after some mommy and son cuddle time, we took a nap for a couple hours. I'm sure a lot of my sleepiness had to do with the fact that my stomach just felt awful from the Chinese and wine last night. Those two were not meant to be mixed with CrossFit. I was starving during the workout, which has never happened before, but afterwards the thought of food just made me want to vomit. Needless to say, I haven't eaten much today.
I got my schedule for next month and it's a bit...sparse. They really didn't put me on many shifts at all (even the Saturday/Sunday/Monday ones that people don't usually take). Don't really know what's going on with that but I guess I'll just take my vacation that I inadvertently signed up for and spend some time with me. If anything it'll keep me away from a base chock full of Cheetoh's and Pop-Tarts so I guess it can't be all that bad. I'm just going to have to figure out a better gym schedule for April so things don't start interfering with each other too badly.
It's another relaxing night at home with a book and a movie! Gotta hit the books a little bit in the upcoming days but I only have 7 more days left of school! Wish I could be celebrating instead of constantly worrying about everything, but it is what it is. Paleo Challenge starts Saturday!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Just Jump
So yesterday I finally got back to the gym. I think I've officially become an addict - I don't know if that's an unhealthy thing or not yet. But regardless. I was determined to kick some ass.
Warm-Up:
3 rounds of Cindy (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats) I was going to try full body push-ups but with the way I've been feeling lately I felt too weak.
10 scorpion stretches
20 ham to plow
Strength:
5 x 3 deadlifts with 2 min. rest. So apparently my back isn't as weak as I thought because I can easily deadlift 155 pounds. Granted, I was really feeling it in my lower back but it wasn't bad. I actually googled it today because I was curious about just how many muscles it works and it's like all of them so that may be why I can do more weight with those.
Metcon:
This MetCon was kind of wacky just because it was 3 minutes of sprinting with 1 minute of rest, and we did 3 rounds with various exercises. The final score was how many of the strength exercises you could complete before the 3 minutes was up.
Round 1:
500 m row
Max effort box jumps
Round 2:
200 single under jump rope
Push-Ups
Round 3:
500 m row
Wall balls
Midline:
4 x 25 hollow rocks -- I hate them, you literally raise your arms and legs slightly off the floor and just rock back and forth, it sounds easy but it's not.
So my final score for the MetCon was 7, 15, and 3. I started off really strong, I think I made record time with my 500 m row. Generally when you get me angry enough and put me on some kind of cardio machine I will just beast through it. I was super proud of my box jumps though. I finally took the plunge and grabbed the 16" box. There were some humorous first attempts (I didn't fall on my face!), but I finally got it. Never going back to that wimpy 12" box again! The rest of the MetCon was relatively uneventful.
I'm starting to get a little more of my juju back. Mentally I'm still pretty wrecked so I think it's still affecting me physically, but I'll hopefully be back to myself in no time.
I got my info on the Paleo Challenge this morning! They sent us a list of foods that we can have, as well as a list of foods that are better nutritionally raw versus cooked. We also got an e-Book that we can read to help us along. I'm meeting up with the group at 8 am on Saturday morning to head to the Public Market where they're going to introduce us to all their favorite farmers as well as a farm that sells organic grass fed meat at lower prices than Wegmans. Then at 11:30 we'll all head back to the gym for measurements, pictures, and a workout. I'm so ready for it to start! Conference is kind of going to be an unofficial cheat weekend but other than that I'm more than ready to go. I'm ready to get rid of the cheat days and focus on me for 6 weeks.
I did measurements today, mostly for shits and giggles, and I've actually lost a couple inches here and there. Wasn't anything drastic, just mostly half an inch on my calves, hips and upper arms, but it's something! I'm going to start saving up some money to put towards my shopping spree that I'm undoubtedly going to need to have after all this is over. Things are already falling off of me. Not that I'm complaining.
I'm having one last hoo-rah tonight with the Chinese food, as well as pairing it with a little wine. Going to get a little homework done beforehand though <_<
Warm-Up:
3 rounds of Cindy (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats) I was going to try full body push-ups but with the way I've been feeling lately I felt too weak.
10 scorpion stretches
20 ham to plow
Strength:
5 x 3 deadlifts with 2 min. rest. So apparently my back isn't as weak as I thought because I can easily deadlift 155 pounds. Granted, I was really feeling it in my lower back but it wasn't bad. I actually googled it today because I was curious about just how many muscles it works and it's like all of them so that may be why I can do more weight with those.
Metcon:
This MetCon was kind of wacky just because it was 3 minutes of sprinting with 1 minute of rest, and we did 3 rounds with various exercises. The final score was how many of the strength exercises you could complete before the 3 minutes was up.
Round 1:
500 m row
Max effort box jumps
Round 2:
200 single under jump rope
Push-Ups
Round 3:
500 m row
Wall balls
Midline:
4 x 25 hollow rocks -- I hate them, you literally raise your arms and legs slightly off the floor and just rock back and forth, it sounds easy but it's not.
So my final score for the MetCon was 7, 15, and 3. I started off really strong, I think I made record time with my 500 m row. Generally when you get me angry enough and put me on some kind of cardio machine I will just beast through it. I was super proud of my box jumps though. I finally took the plunge and grabbed the 16" box. There were some humorous first attempts (I didn't fall on my face!), but I finally got it. Never going back to that wimpy 12" box again! The rest of the MetCon was relatively uneventful.
I'm starting to get a little more of my juju back. Mentally I'm still pretty wrecked so I think it's still affecting me physically, but I'll hopefully be back to myself in no time.
I got my info on the Paleo Challenge this morning! They sent us a list of foods that we can have, as well as a list of foods that are better nutritionally raw versus cooked. We also got an e-Book that we can read to help us along. I'm meeting up with the group at 8 am on Saturday morning to head to the Public Market where they're going to introduce us to all their favorite farmers as well as a farm that sells organic grass fed meat at lower prices than Wegmans. Then at 11:30 we'll all head back to the gym for measurements, pictures, and a workout. I'm so ready for it to start! Conference is kind of going to be an unofficial cheat weekend but other than that I'm more than ready to go. I'm ready to get rid of the cheat days and focus on me for 6 weeks.
I did measurements today, mostly for shits and giggles, and I've actually lost a couple inches here and there. Wasn't anything drastic, just mostly half an inch on my calves, hips and upper arms, but it's something! I'm going to start saving up some money to put towards my shopping spree that I'm undoubtedly going to need to have after all this is over. Things are already falling off of me. Not that I'm complaining.
I'm having one last hoo-rah tonight with the Chinese food, as well as pairing it with a little wine. Going to get a little homework done beforehand though <_<
Monday, February 11, 2013
Getting Back on the Horse
Alright, I've had my off week. Tomorrow is back on schedule and gearing up for the Paleo Challenge. I'm not at work tonight (thank God), so it's going to take nothing short of a zombie apocalypse to keep me from getting to the gym. I had my sad/numb day today, now I'm just plain out angry. I've had enough of people telling me what THEY think I'm good at or asking me if I'm cut out for the things I do. I'm sorry, but unless you follow me around 24/7 and actually take notes on my life, you have no freaking idea what I'm capable of. In the 5 minutes it's taking you to judge me for a mistake or a moment of weakness that I had, that's 5 minutes you could have spent on improving your own life and moments of self-doubt. People are right, I do put a lot of pressure on myself. I don't need the added pressure of others thinking I need to be perfect. Are you perfect? I highly doubt it. I'm just so frustrated with people in my life that call themselves leaders, but instead choose to judge and act unprofessional and then turn around and tell you that they'd like to help you grow. I'm sorry, but I generally don't trust people that stab me in the back and then tell me that I essentially should have seen it coming.
I really hope tomorrow's workout involves some sort of slamming things into the floor. The number of faces that I can picture needing a good beating swiftly grew in the past 24 hours. It would be ok if they were people that I didn't respect to begin with, but I respected and looked up to these people. They like to tell me how disappointed in me that they are, but they have no clue how disappointed I am in them. I'm carrying around the weight of disappointment in myself as well as feeling disappointed from their actions. Maybe they should try that weight on for size and see if they can squat with it.
In other news, my body feels like it got run over by a truck again. I still haven't fully recovered from that workout on Thursday. I worked myself hard, but not to the extent that I should still be feeling it today. I think getting back on track is going to be easier just because I know how awful I feel right now. I'm not getting the right number of the right nutrients currently and I'm feeling it. I feel sluggish, bloated and my head feels like it's going to explode from the ongoing headache. Working since Tuesday night hasn't exactly helped considering the beating your body takes with all the lifting. Even trying not to slip on the ice these days feels like a workout.
So I've got 10 more days until school is over, 11 days until the NCEMSF conference, 5 days until the Paleo Challenge starts and 75 days until the Catalyst Games. I can honestly say I won't be running out of things to look forward to anytime soon. I'm also taking a week off from March 4th to the 11th. With all the crap going on at work, it was conveniently timed for when we're supposed to put in availability for March. Let's just say it became easy for me to click those "not available" buttons. I don't know what I'm doing yet. Hell, I may even just stay in my house for a week and only leave to go to the gym or food shopping. I may even spend some quality time reading a book or something. Regardless of what I do, it's still a week off and that's pretty much all that matters right now.
Here's to hoping I can get back into the swing of things!
I really hope tomorrow's workout involves some sort of slamming things into the floor. The number of faces that I can picture needing a good beating swiftly grew in the past 24 hours. It would be ok if they were people that I didn't respect to begin with, but I respected and looked up to these people. They like to tell me how disappointed in me that they are, but they have no clue how disappointed I am in them. I'm carrying around the weight of disappointment in myself as well as feeling disappointed from their actions. Maybe they should try that weight on for size and see if they can squat with it.
In other news, my body feels like it got run over by a truck again. I still haven't fully recovered from that workout on Thursday. I worked myself hard, but not to the extent that I should still be feeling it today. I think getting back on track is going to be easier just because I know how awful I feel right now. I'm not getting the right number of the right nutrients currently and I'm feeling it. I feel sluggish, bloated and my head feels like it's going to explode from the ongoing headache. Working since Tuesday night hasn't exactly helped considering the beating your body takes with all the lifting. Even trying not to slip on the ice these days feels like a workout.
So I've got 10 more days until school is over, 11 days until the NCEMSF conference, 5 days until the Paleo Challenge starts and 75 days until the Catalyst Games. I can honestly say I won't be running out of things to look forward to anytime soon. I'm also taking a week off from March 4th to the 11th. With all the crap going on at work, it was conveniently timed for when we're supposed to put in availability for March. Let's just say it became easy for me to click those "not available" buttons. I don't know what I'm doing yet. Hell, I may even just stay in my house for a week and only leave to go to the gym or food shopping. I may even spend some quality time reading a book or something. Regardless of what I do, it's still a week off and that's pretty much all that matters right now.
Here's to hoping I can get back into the swing of things!
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Week From Hell
So, I was really debating whether I wanted to blog about this week or not, but I told myself that it wasn't accountability if I only talked about the good days.
Last weekend was actually pretty awesome. Went to the Henrietta banquet so I got to get all dressed up and feel pretty for a night. Got incredibly drunk with no hangover the next morning. And then it was time for the Superbowl where we all hung out eating copious amounts of chicken wings. I knew last weekend was going to be my cheat weekend and I'd planned ahead.
What I wasn't planning for was what happened after the Superbowl. I worked Sunday night and we were just slammed the entire time from 10:55 to like 4:30 the next morning. We'd get back to base long enough to finish up some charts and get banged out on the next one. Needless to say, I slept through my alarm to get to the gym on Monday. That's when things got all kinds of out of whack. With the stress of it being Week 9 and problems with work and everything else, I have had the hardest time getting back on track. I'll make myself a nice meal at home and then the other meal will be whatever I pick up on the fly. I'm not talking fast food, but I'm not talking about super healthy food either.
I had to work during the day on Wednesday so I moved my gym appointment to Thursday. Let me tell you how badly I was craving it. It was nice to work a day shift for once, don't get me wrong, but nights at least leave my days free to do what I want. That's essentially one of the only good parts about them. Regardless, I finally got into the gym on Thursday. Our workout was called G. I. Jane after the movie. I should have run far far away when I saw that. It was 100 burpee pull-ups where instead of just hopping yourself back up to standing, you use that hop to propel yourself up to the pull-up bar and do a pull-up. Now for us gravitationally challenged folks, we had to do 20 sets of 5 burpees and 5 pull-ups so we weren't getting in and out of the assistance bands all the time. 20 sets! Now that shit is mentally challenging. They put a 30 minute cap on it so I got through 15 out of the 20 sets. Not too god awful.
There was an older gentleman in our class who just wouldn't give up even when the 30 minutes was up. He was determined to finish that last set. I think he finally finished after 38 minutes or something. I felt really lucky because after one guy finished he came back and helped me and tried to keep me as motivated as possible. It was always "one more" or "5 pull-ups and you'll have finished another set." It was truly incredible. By the end we were all kind of cheering each other on.
I was supposed to go again Friday morning but we ended up getting an emergency call so that went out the window. I was kind of ok with it because my body felt like it got run over by a semi. It still kind of does. I think a lot of it has to do with how I've been eating for the past week. I just think I'm not getting the right nutrients to aid in that recovery. Also doesn't help that my stomach is violently rejecting anything I put into it that doesn't constitute as "healthy" food.
I'm definitely ready for this paleo challenge to start. I want more than anything to get back on track. I've also signed up for my first crossfit games. Our gym hosts the Catalyst Games and they collect the money from people registering and give it to charity. It's on April 27th so I have plenty of time to prepare. They're having a modified class and an Rx class and I signed up for modified. I can't quite do handstands let alone handstand push-ups.
At this point, I'm just ready for school to be over. Once that's over, I can focus more on myself. I had to put in availability for March already and I made sure that I didn't overload with the overnights. They could very well still screw me over but it's not going to be nearly as bad as it was these past 2 months, thank goodness.
Here's to hoping next week gets better.
Last weekend was actually pretty awesome. Went to the Henrietta banquet so I got to get all dressed up and feel pretty for a night. Got incredibly drunk with no hangover the next morning. And then it was time for the Superbowl where we all hung out eating copious amounts of chicken wings. I knew last weekend was going to be my cheat weekend and I'd planned ahead.
What I wasn't planning for was what happened after the Superbowl. I worked Sunday night and we were just slammed the entire time from 10:55 to like 4:30 the next morning. We'd get back to base long enough to finish up some charts and get banged out on the next one. Needless to say, I slept through my alarm to get to the gym on Monday. That's when things got all kinds of out of whack. With the stress of it being Week 9 and problems with work and everything else, I have had the hardest time getting back on track. I'll make myself a nice meal at home and then the other meal will be whatever I pick up on the fly. I'm not talking fast food, but I'm not talking about super healthy food either.
I had to work during the day on Wednesday so I moved my gym appointment to Thursday. Let me tell you how badly I was craving it. It was nice to work a day shift for once, don't get me wrong, but nights at least leave my days free to do what I want. That's essentially one of the only good parts about them. Regardless, I finally got into the gym on Thursday. Our workout was called G. I. Jane after the movie. I should have run far far away when I saw that. It was 100 burpee pull-ups where instead of just hopping yourself back up to standing, you use that hop to propel yourself up to the pull-up bar and do a pull-up. Now for us gravitationally challenged folks, we had to do 20 sets of 5 burpees and 5 pull-ups so we weren't getting in and out of the assistance bands all the time. 20 sets! Now that shit is mentally challenging. They put a 30 minute cap on it so I got through 15 out of the 20 sets. Not too god awful.
There was an older gentleman in our class who just wouldn't give up even when the 30 minutes was up. He was determined to finish that last set. I think he finally finished after 38 minutes or something. I felt really lucky because after one guy finished he came back and helped me and tried to keep me as motivated as possible. It was always "one more" or "5 pull-ups and you'll have finished another set." It was truly incredible. By the end we were all kind of cheering each other on.
I was supposed to go again Friday morning but we ended up getting an emergency call so that went out the window. I was kind of ok with it because my body felt like it got run over by a semi. It still kind of does. I think a lot of it has to do with how I've been eating for the past week. I just think I'm not getting the right nutrients to aid in that recovery. Also doesn't help that my stomach is violently rejecting anything I put into it that doesn't constitute as "healthy" food.
I'm definitely ready for this paleo challenge to start. I want more than anything to get back on track. I've also signed up for my first crossfit games. Our gym hosts the Catalyst Games and they collect the money from people registering and give it to charity. It's on April 27th so I have plenty of time to prepare. They're having a modified class and an Rx class and I signed up for modified. I can't quite do handstands let alone handstand push-ups.
At this point, I'm just ready for school to be over. Once that's over, I can focus more on myself. I had to put in availability for March already and I made sure that I didn't overload with the overnights. They could very well still screw me over but it's not going to be nearly as bad as it was these past 2 months, thank goodness.
Here's to hoping next week gets better.
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