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!
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