And I Thought February Was Bad...

Without going into the gory details again, because I'd like to put all this shit behind me, this past weekend takes the cake for the worst possible moment I could have had in 2013. If I thought being betrayed by a senior officer at an agency was bad, try getting betrayed by your own roommate whom you believed was your friend. Now that shit is no effing bueno. So between being sick all weekend and my world blowing up, I haven't been very faithful to paleo (or to my loyal readers).

The paleo thing really just hasn't been consistent so far this week from about Sunday to today. Sunday I had meetings all day so instead of prepping food, I just had the bagels from aforementioned meeting. Dinner was paleo-compliant. Monday I was good all day. Tuesday I was good until dinner, which was eaten on campus. Wednesday I was good and today was a not-so-good breakfast. The other issue too is that I've been undereating. With the stress and the fact that I'm generally running around when mealtime hits, I've been skipping meals. So not only am I not eating 100% right, I'm also just not eating at all. It's a lot different from my old days where stress eating was the norm, but both options are equally unhealthy. Secondly I have not been getting enough sleep and it's mostly because I've been going to bed too late. I'm still waking up on my own early in the morning so I'm really just screwing myself.

I think another part of it is that when I get stressed, my motivation to cook just plummets. That's part of the reason why I have major cooking days because I just know I will have at least one day where I'll be thankful to have something I'll just need to heat up. So after last Friday, I had these two heaping bowls of spaghetti squash dishes, but hadn't really prepared anything else. I really just kind of messed myself up with that one in all ways possible. I'll be starting a shopping list this weekend and hopefully next weekend will be much better.

The good thing to come out of last week was that I can actually start seeing body changes. A big thing was getting rid of the huge fruit intake. I cut it down to one per day, and if I can get rid of the shitty eating, it looks like it's making all the difference.

Got myself back to the gym yesterday. We started with tabata jump roping and various stretches.

Strength:
15 minutes to work up to a 1 RM split jerk

MetCon: (15 minute cap)
10 atlas stone to shoulder
10 box jumps
10 stone to shoulder
10 toes to bar
10 stone to shoulder
10 dumbbell presses
10 stone to shoulder
10 burpees
10 stone to shoulder

The strength wasn't bad. I really enjoy split jerks. My 1 RM is 123. The MetCon was tough. We were supposed to use atlas stones, which essentially look like balls of concrete. But I was too strong for a 30 pound one, and the next size up was a 75, so I ended up using a 50 pound slam ball. Very awkward. The movement itself is kind of fun. We were taught how to do it in two steps: (1) pick up the stone using a deadlift stance and rest it on the top of your thighs, (2) curl your upper body around the stone, push your hips back and roll it up onto your shoulder. There is a way to do it in one step but you have to be careful because people start using their biceps instead of keeping their arms locked out. My toes to bar and burpees are getting really good! I can now use a controlled swing. I'm still doing knees to chest but I could feel a lot of increased flexibility in my hips and abdominal region. It's probably just because my belly isn't getting in the way anymore. It also isn't as hard to hang from the bar anymore. My burpees keep getting more and more powerful by the day.

All in all, I'll have to say that taking a week off from the gym, although it wasn't really by choice, was just what my body needed. I came back feeling stronger and better than ever. Sometimes you just need the break, even if you don't feel like you do. It's not going to be a theory that I try out on a regular basis because it sometimes is just a fluke.

After the workout yesterday, I finally had them make me a folder. While I record my workouts here, the info they put in them is actually really useful. It tells you about the different "girl" and "hero" workouts, and it gives you baselines to give you an idea of where you stand. Before I started filling things out, I thought that I must be at least intermediate with the strength parts because I can lift so much. Yeah that's not the case. The baselines they use in the folders are based off of percentage of body weight. So based off of that I'm still in the beginning stages, but my percentages are pretty much right between the beginner and intermediate range. Can't complain too much considering I'm still getting stronger.

I can't wait for things to warm up permanently. Once they do I plan to start running outside. Just grabbing Mack and my running sneakers. I have an app on my phone called Couch to 5k. It essentially trains you to run using interval training. I'm pretty excited since I really want to do this obstacle race called Hero Rush. It's based a lot on firefighter/emergency services type stuff and will be happening at the beginning of June. It's shorter than the Tough Mudder and those races and a little more geared towards goofy obstacles. I think it'll be a good starting point for me. I also got my work schedule for April and will be increasing my class attendance to 4 per week as of tomorrow. There's no better time to git 'er done!

Week 4 is almost done. I may not be getting the body changes I want (although my clothes are starting to fit a lot better!), but the changes in the gym are definitely still there. I'm still nervous about the baseline workout just because of those stupid clusters but we'll see what happens. I'm hoping going to the gym 4 times a week now for the next 2 weeks will help a little as well as quitting with the bad days. I just need to make sure I plan better this time around.

Well, g'night all, here's to things getting better!