How Time Flies...

Didn't I tell you I'd forget something?! Sorry it's been a week without a post. Between having crappy internet and 5 thousand other things to do, I kind of slacked off a bit.

But anywho...

After finishing this paleo thing, I decided to come up with a "bucket list" of Crossfit movements that I want to master in the near future:
1). 20" box jumps
2). Double-unders
3). Pull-ups with a green assistance band
4). Handstands

I feel like I spent the entire challenge adding to this bucket list but these are the 4 that really stick out to me.

Worked out Monday morning. They definitely got us good. Woke up and checked the WOD and nearly had a heart attack. I can officially say that I got April Fools'd.

April Fools WOD:
1 mile run
100 chin to bar pull-ups
200 handstand push-ups
300 pistol squats
1 mile run
...rest 5 min...
Establish 20 rep max back squat

Oh yeah, they got me good. Nawt cool. It took me until the 300 pistol squats to realize I'd been had. So the REAL WOD for Monday was:

Strength:
20 rep max back squat

MetCon:
EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) for 20 minutes
   - odd minutes: 3 deadlifts
   - even minutes: max effort burpees

I used 93 pounds for the back squats, and 133 pounds for the deadlifts. The MetCon definitely sucked a lot. The most burpees I got in one round was 12, and that was the first round. For the first 6-ish rounds I was averaging about 8 burpees, my final total being 66. Wasn't very impressed but I took it.

The rest of the week was uneventful. Only got to the gym one other time because I got sick again and was working. Well...the jury's still out on whether I was sick or got allergies, because both are fairly likely. What I DID spend my week doing was fatty-ing myself up again on all the foods I've been missing (damn). There was Chinese food, garbage plates, and various other non-paleo items. It was a bad idea, I felt like crap. Part of the problem was not having food in the house that I was interested in eating. Getting back to paleo = work in progress.

Friday was Open WOD 13.5...the last one. They nicknamed it Fran-RAP.

4 Minute AMRAP
15 Thrusters (65 pounds)
15 Chest to Bar pull-ups

*If you complete 3 full rounds within 4 minutes, you get 4 more minutes added to the clock

This was killer but I beasted through it. Well...beasted in my terms which usually means not stopping and just going at it full force. 65 pound thrusters weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be. The last time I did thrusters, I used 73 pounds so it was a little lighter this time. I used my usual resistance band for the pull-ups. The tough part about these pull-ups were that they were chest to bar, not chin to bar so you had to pull yourself up even higher than we usually do. I ended up kipping a bit. My final score was 48, which means I got through the full sequence twice and got 3 thrusters done. That's freaking amazing for me.

Since that was the only thing we were doing that day we got a lot of free time at the end of class, so I decided to try some of my "bucket list" movements: 20" box jump, green band pull-ups, and I threw double-unders in there just because everyone else was doing it.

I started with the pull-ups since our coach was going over kipping pull-ups with a lot of people. I tried a couple strict pull-ups with the green band and just barely got my eyes over the bar, so I went with kipping. Kipping with an assistance band must look so comical to the people standing on the ground watching you do it because you feel like a whale that's tied up in elastics. But regardless, I did it. I started with one pull-up, then kept progressing until I could get 5 in a row. I didn't want to go too crazy since I was already kind of tired, so I was happy with the 5 in a row.

After that came the box jumps. I warmed up with the 16" box a little bit, then pulled out the 20" box. I started with some step-ups just to get a feel for the height. A couple of the other guys were hanging around watching me and asked me what I was doing. I told them I just wanted to jump on the damn thing once. After doing a couple step-ups, I stood next to it and did a couple vertical jumps. They told me I was clearing the box with a decent couple of inches so I decided to just go for it. I stepped back from it a few paces so I could get a walking headstart. There were a couple failed attempts but I finally did it! I definitely did a little dance on top of that thing. After that I kept trying it. I still needed a walking head start before I could even contemplate jumping on that thing because it was definitely still fairly intimidating! I knew I was starting to get tired when I was getting more failed attempts than actual jumps so I put that one away for the time being.

Last but not least, double-unders. I honestly don't know what hurts more - whipping yourself with a jumprope or burpees because they're fairly neck and neck with that one. I didn't quite get one because my arms and legs were fairly exhausted by the time I got to trying it out, but I at least left with some good pointers on how to do them.

So after being so productive, I made workout goals for myself. On days that aren't leg intensive, I told myself I'd stay after a little longer to work on the box jumps. On days that aren't arm intensive, I decided I'd work on pull-ups and double-unders. It seemed like a really good plan at the time.

After all that, I was actually kind of feeling better, so I decided to go banquet shopping. I'd cleaned out my closet of a whole ton of things that don't fit any longer and I really wanted to get myself a nice cheap dress that I could feel good in, but also feel good getting rid of at the beginning of the summer when I've lost more weight. Let me tell you, it was SO amazing to be in a dressing room and feeling torn between dresses because you have several that look good on you. I'm still not the size I wanted to be, but it was still a pretty amazing feeling. Now if only I could get myself back on the damn paleo!

In between all of this, I'm still going on long walks about 2 or 3 times per week, Sunday being the longest one at 5 miles. The weekend was beautiful. Sun was shining both days. Sunday was a little warmer though. I spent all day Saturday outside doing a cones course so I was walking around everywhere and even managed to get a sunburn! Sunday we had meetings, and I got to just spend a little time sitting at the picnic table before our walk. Sometimes even the most non-intensive exercise still feels good.

This post is going to end on the weekend because the next one is going to segway into how my plan has worked out for me so far this week.

It's Really Only the Beginning

So Saturday was final measurement day. If I try to tell anyone I wasn't nervous, just smack me, I was losing my goddamn mind. But let's back up here. Hope you've got some coffee because this is going to be a long one!

I ended up going to the gym Thursday evening. I was kind of disappointed because he wanted us doing a box jump height that would allow us to do box jumps unbroken. So it didn't end up being a good day to try a 20" box. What I DID try was jumping on the box without walking up to it or using a lot of momentum before I actually jumped. I just worked on standing in front of the box, and jumping on it. It ended up working pretty well. It's starting to show that I'm getting confident enough with the 16" that I don't need to get practically a running headstart. It may not have been a 20" box, but it's something. The MetCon (4 rounds of 5 axle thrusters and 10 burpees) wasn't that bad at all. It actually really helped with getting me ready for yesterday's baseline WOD. An axle bar is different from a regular barbell. It's lighter and thicker and doesn't have any rotating parts so you really have to make sure that you're getting the rotation from your arms, not the momentum of the actual lift. I did those with 60 pounds. Maybe I could have gone heavier but my muscles were just about ready to give up.

Came home from the gym, made a really simple dinner and was in bed by 11. Slept until 1030 the next morning. I think I was a little tired. I ended up cancelling my reservation for the Friday class because I just really wanted to rest. Instead I ended up gathering a few friends and checking out a walking trail in Rush, which was absolutely beautiful. We probably did between 2.5 and 3 miles.

I did a lot of meal prepping Friday afternoon. I made Sweet Potato Pancakes, Zucchini Pancakes, Sweet Potato Chips, Crockpot Beef Stew, and Meat Candy. I totally reminded myself of my grandmother. I was sitting at the kitchen table peeling sweet potatoes and shredding them while I was watching Glee. I did end up slicing my finger with the mandoline slicer. Nothing too major but I can now saw I shed blood for the sake of paleo.

Sweet Potato Pancakes:
2 medium sweet potatoes
Bacon fat
2 eggs
Salt/pepper

Peel and shred the sweet potatoes, and add to a bowl with the eggs and the salt/pepper. Mix until the eggs get well-distributed. Heat up a skillet with the bacon fat. I used a little 1/4 cup measuring cup to ladle the batter into the pan. Cook the pancake on both sides until browned. 

Sweet Potato Chips:
2 sweet potatoes
Olive oil
Salt/pepper or other seasonings

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice the sweet potatoes into thin rounds. I placed the slices on a cookie sheet and misted with olive oil, but you can also add the slices to a bowl, drizzle a little olive oil and mix it by hand. Add the desired seasonings. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Crockpot Beef Stew:
1 lb. stew beef
1 bag frozen pearl onions
3 tbsp. almond meal
Salt/pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, cinnamon
3 large carrots cut into small rounds
3/4 tbsp. red wine vinegar (you can also use red wine)
1 1/2 cups beef broth
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces

Mix the stew beef and almond meal together in the crockpot until the beef is well-coated. Add in the seasonings and mix. Add in carrots, onion, red wine vinegar and beef broth. Set the crockpot to low (for a 7 hour cooking time) or high (for a 5 hour cooking time). In the last 45 minutes, add the sweet potatoes and cook until tender. 

Meat Candy:
Dates
Bacon (cut into 1/3's) 
Toothpicks

I didn't put an exact amount of dates and bacon with this one since it all depends how many you want to make. If the dates aren't pitted, pit them. Wrap a piece of bacon around a date and secure with a toothpick. If you want your meat candy to be very meaty, use longer pieces of bacon. Place dates on a cookie sheet and back at 350 for 15 minutes. 

I'm up in the air on how I feel about the beef stew. The recipe usually calls for gnocchi which end up soaking up the last little bit of liquid and making it a nice thick stew. Apparently just putting sweet potatoes in there doesn't do the same so it's still somewhat liquid-like. I'm on the fence about how I feel about it.

The sweet potato pancakes are a little weird. They just have a strange taste to them, I don't know if I should have added more seasonings or what.

Saturday morning came and I was super nervous, on top of being tired from not sleeping a whole lot the night before. Took Mack to the vet really quick and had a quick breakfast of a boiled egg and a couple pieces of bacon with about half a water bottle's worth of water. I didn't feel like being weighed down.

Got to the gym and the first task was to get weighed and measured. Here are my final measurements compared with my beginning measurements that they took:

February 16th:
Shoulders: 20"
Chest: 42 3/4"
Waist: 43"
Hips: 50"
R Arm: 14"
R Thigh: 26 1/2"
R Calf: 17"
% Body Fat: 34.5

March 30th:
Shoulders: 20"
Chest: 43"
Waist: 39"
Hips: 45"
R Arm: 14"
R Thigh: 26"
R Calf: 17"
% Body Fat: 32.7

So, contrary to my belief, I actually lost all of the inches in my waist and hips. I'd like to see more weight come off of those areas as well as my thighs, but for 6 weeks I'd say that's pretty damn good. It added up to 10 inches total lost, 1.8% body fat, and 14 pounds. Not bad at all I'd say.

The numbers are great and all, but wait until you see this baseline WOD. The idea was to use the exact same weights and modifications as the original baseline. If you only did kettlebell swings up to your chin, that's what you did this time around.

Baseline WOD:
Max effort pull-ups (using a black resistance band and strict pull-ups)
12 minute MetCon:
12 - 9 - 6
Kettlebell Swings (26# - modified swing to chin)
Clusters (Squat Clean + Thruster -- 53#)
Burpee Box Jumps (16")

February 16th Results:
10 pull-ups
2 rounds + 7 reps in 12 minutes

March 30th Results:
12 pull-ups
MetCon finished in 11:32

Seriously, if anyone needed any proof that paleo and a little determination works, here's your proof. Yes I did all that eating bacon, steak, and sweet potatoes. My body literally turned itself into a machine. That box is definitely still intimidating when you're exhausted and pairing it with burpees. Nothing is fun when paired with burpees. Either way, I'm still entirely amazed. I still have a lot of work to do. I want to lose 23 more pounds before the summer. Now I could sit here and agonize over what my results would have looked like if I didn't cheat, but if there's anything I've learned, a little cheat here and there wasn't what killed me. My body just wasn't made to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time.  So we're going to see what the next two months have in store for me. I'm still just living on the high that I've had since Saturday.

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning out my closets. I knew there were plenty of clothes that still weren't going to fit me, mostly because I got them back in freshman year, still 20 pounds ago. So I didn't agonize over those. My goal was to find the things that didn't fit because they were too big. I started with the dutyshirts. I found out that I'm no longer a large (men-sized) shirt. I had a couple mediums laying around so the larges definitely came out of the closet. As far as dress sizes go, I'm definitely a 14 now. Both of the dresses I bought for graduation no longer fit.

There is definitely some stuff that I'm in limbo with. My bikini looks a little better on me, while my bathing suit from last summer essentially still fits perfectly. With stuff like denim skirts, I'm kind of in limbo between a 14 and a 16, so I think I'm going to hold off on skirts/jean shopping until I'm at least one or the other, hopefully the smaller one. I find it weird how you can drop a couple sizes in one kind of clothing, but either stay the same or still not fit in another kind of clothing. Regardless, I now have a mini skirt from a couple summers ago hanging on my wall as motivation.

I did end up taking a couple pictures yesterday. I won't put up the bikini pictures just because it's still kind of scary. But I did get these...

That's me in October wearing a pair of new EMT pants that I never got to wear. They're Size 18, which in the real world equates to about a Size 14. Between October and January, my size didn't change that much. Those pants still didn't fit me at the beginning of the challenge.

That's me yesterday wearing those same pants with a medium dutyshirt. Actually I've been wearing those pants for about 2 weeks now, just never got a picture with them until now. I may not be able to detect the little changes while I'm wearing a bikini, but this is where you can really see them.

My current end goal for the beginning of June is to be another 20 pounds down, and hopefully comfortably fitting into Size 14 jeans, if not smaller. As far as performance goals go, I want to be getting on a 20" box as well as going down one resistance band in pull-ups (as in, black to green). I have two months to accomplish those. I get the feeling it'll take me a bit less time, but I figure I shouldn't go too crazy. Also got the Catalyst Games coming up in 26 days!

So what would a diet challenge be without a few post-challenge cheat meals. Yesterday I attacked the chocolate. A couple friends also came over and we made Matzah ball soup for "lunch". For dinner I had chinese food with some hard cider. Tonight I had Salsarita's, and a garbage plate. I can now officially say my bucket list has been fulfilled and I'm ready to hit it again tomorrow! I officially signed up for the Biggest Loser challenge at work so we'll see how far I can go with that! Like I said, I'm going to stay about 90% paleo. If I happen to use butter or maple syrup, or even real milk here and there, I'm not going to curl up in a corner and cry, but I wouldn't use those things for anything other than cooking. I don't plan on drinking glasses of milk per day. This lifestyle has definitely worked for me, but at the same time, I'd go stir crazy if I remained paleo to the extent that I did for the past 6 weeks.

Alright I think I've made this post long enough. I'm sure I'll remember something I forgot, but that's what tomorrow's post is for!

G'night all!

Urgh

So I'm just going to do a post now since I know I'll be way too tired tonight to do it. Getting up at 530 two days in a row is rough and I'm definitely feeling it today. I don't quite feel like I've been hit by a bus, but I'm definitely sluggish and not feelin it today. It's pretty much taking all my willpower not to drink the entire pot of coffee we've got in the kitchen. I'm allowed to have coffee, but obviously I would have to drink it black or with almond milk. Yuck.

Went on another walk last night although it was shorter - probably between 1 and a half miles and 2. Got about half of the RIT loop done. I was tired, and it was cold, but it was nice to get a little exercise into the day. Had breakfast for dinner because I was way too lazy and tired to do anything else. I may as well just not even bothered since I was in bed 10 minutes later.

Today is another one of those days at work. I'm really not feeling the gym tonight but after the past two days, I get the feeling it's going to be pretty cathartic. My body's not feeling it, but we'll see what I can muster. I was seriously contemplating cancelling my reservation tonight but then I checked out the WOD and got super conflicted.

Skill:
3 rounds not for time
5-8 muscle ups or pull-ups
10-15 box jumps
8-10 Glute-ham raises

MetCon:
4 rounds
5 axle thrusters
10 burpees

Midline:
3 x 8 kettlebell windmills

So this is why I'm super conflicted - box jumps and pull-ups in one WOD and no time entered. Would be a perfect time to try and tackle that 20" box and I could really take some time to work on pull-ups. The MetCon doesn't even look that god awful. I've never done a windmill before so I can't exactly comment on that. The part that's making me hesitant right now is that: A). I'm freaking exhausted so I don't even know how well I would do. B). the Open WOD is tomorrow and it actually looks like fun so I want to do it and C). the final results are on Saturday so I don't want to tire myself out for that. By now I'm past the time that I can unregister myself for the class without having to call one of the coaches so I guess my fate has kind of been decided but I don't know what I'll do about Friday and Saturday now. Ugh! Other option is that I could suck it up, go to the gym tonight, go to sleep right after and sleep for like 12 hours or something. I feel like that is a totally doable goal right there. Ok I guess I can be ok with this gym plan. I really do need to food prep tomorrow though....eesh.

I think the plan for tomorrow will be to get up around 8-ish, which will work swimmingly if I go to bed nice and early. I'll throw the beef stew in the crockpot to cook while I'm at the gym. Then when I come home I'll get to work on the baking type stuff like some sweet potato/zucchini chips and the meat candy. I might do the stuff that needs to be fried but we'll see with that one. I still have to make my spaghetti squash dish, which I just may do quickly tonight. Was going to just mix it together in a bowl with some tomato sauce and clams. Seemed like something simple and quick to do.

Now that I've finally gotten the paleo on a budget thing down, now I have to worry about my electricity bill. My stove is electric and I never really realized how much energy that damn appliance uses. I really wish I had a gas stove. I'll just have to start paying attention to how long I have the oven running when there's nothing cooking in it, and same goes for the stove. I use my toaster oven a lot for baking small things, but I don't know how much energy that sucks up compared to the stovetop.

I know I just really need to sleep. As soon as there's a good night's sleep on board, a lot of things will start looking up. Maybe not all, but a lot. Hopefully.

3 More Days!

So I officially have 3 more days left in the Paleo Challenge. Oof. I'm probably going to meet my original goal that I made at the beginning, but most likely not the "new" one I made. I'm ok with it. 5 pounds in a week and a half was a bit of a tall order since I'm now packing on muscle. As long as I get to my goal by the beginning of the summer I'm perfectly fine with whatever happens in between.

The weekend was rough. A friend came back into town (not due to the best circumstances), so there was alcohol had...and bad food. But I'm back in the game! Went food shopping yesterday so there's food in my house again (recipes/grocery list to follow). I just really need to make sure that I'm keeping my metabolism up this week since I think I started undereating again.

Monday was back to the gym day. They took it easy on us again which was highly confusing.

Strength:
20 rep back squat, increasing weight from last week

Midline:
3 rounds not for time
10 barbell good mornings
15 GHD sit-ups
1-2 min. front plank hold

Mobility/Recovery:
8-10 min. easy row

Last week I did 75 pounds with the back squat, so this week I did 85. It hurt a bit, but not too bad. He said we needed to be struggling by the end of it, which I was, so I guess I did it right. I almost want to do my 1 RM again just to see what it's at now, because it's definitely no longer 135.

I am so happy they've been doing more midline work lately. I used 65 pounds for the barbell good mornings. Little heavy but not bad. The GHD sit-ups were a little nerve-wracking just because you're suspending your body off this little contraption and hoping it doesn't tip over. I can't extend all the way back just yet but I'm at least able to go a little past parallel. Planks I did in two 30 second intervals just because a minute is a bit of a tall order. My midline is actually a lot stronger than I've been giving it credit for. I think having to use my abs to stabilize myself with the powerful lifts definitely helped. Abs of steel comin right up!

Spent the rest of Monday at base just chilling before Rothberg asked me if I'd like to go on a walk when he got out of work. He's gotta walk like 10,000 steps a day or something. Well I soon figured out that 7,000 steps is 3.5 miles. I was so tired by the end of it, yet Mack thought it was the best thing in the world. I swear, I'm just going to tie that dog to a sled and make him pull me around. Would save so much money on gas.

Tuesday I went back to the gym. I think Mack is getting used to these early morning routines: Get up, go out, eat food, then wait for mommy to crawl home from the gym.

Skill:
3 rounds not for time
8-10 handstand push-ups
10-15 pull ups
10-15 GHD hip extension

Metcon
30-25-20-15-10-5
Kettlebell swings
Double Unders (4x singles)

Midline
2 x 50 abmat sit-ups

Yesterday was another skill intensive day. Honestly I'm not going to complain about it because it gave me the chance to actually work on some stuff. I can't do handstand push-ups just yet because I can't do a handstand, so I worked on getting myself as vertical as possible on the wall and holding it for 20-30 seconds. I finally got it so my hands were only about 6" from the wall, which means I was just shy of fully vertical. The only problem with doing something like that is I'm facing the wall so I can't just let my legs drop. Maybe next time we do them I'll try and get a handstand the normal way. I really gotta work on those pull-ups though. Jack wagons.

The MetCon kind of sucked. Now that I've started using the 35# kettlebell, I've been trying to stick with it, so it got really tiring fast. Not to mention if you weren't doing double unders, you had to multiply by 4 for the number of singles you had to do. Didn't help that I think I used a jump rope that was too short for me. Those sit-ups were killer. I didn't realize how sore my abs were until I started getting the sit-ups done. I started out with sets of 20 and then knocked it down to sets of 10. 100 sit-ups later and I'm finally feeling it today.

I've been feeling kinda sluggish these past couple days. Getting up in the morning has been a little rough (to be fair, I've been going to bed too late), and I usually don't wake up until about halfway through the work-out. It even feels like my muscles are still asleep. Once I'm awake though, I'm up for the day beasting through work like I normally have been. It's weird.

Alright, so, my grocery shopping list. This week I'm keeping it super simple. I've really been feeling hearty "comfort-type" foods. I'll be making my favorite crockpot beef stew recipe, except instead of potato gnocchi, I'll just use cut up sweet potatoes. I'd love to figure out how to make paleo sweet potato gnocchi, but it's very ingredient/labor intensive. I love a thick creamy stew so the gnocchi usually serve to absorb any excess beef broth, so I'm hoping the sweet potatoes can accomplish that. I haven't used my crockpot in so long! I'm so excited. I'm also going to make another batch or two of the zucchini fritters. To add on to that, I'm going to make sweet potato pancakes as well. I like having foods that are versatile - meaning I can eat them with anything. They can be a quick side to a dinner entree or can be eaten with breakfast. I'm going to make shrimp cakes, which I'm very excited about. There's also a simple zucchini and ground beef recipe, which is just zucchini and ground beef sauteed together. Seems very simple and filling. I also found a bag of mixed frozen shrimp, calamari and scallops. They say you can just cook it in a pan and do whatever with it. I'll be very psyched to try it out. I'll post recipes as I'm doing them since I'm sure I've forgotten a few that I wanted to try. I also threw together a quick frittata last night to have for work this week.

I'm not going to the gym today since I've been working all day. I definitely got my exercise this morning doing CPR, so I'm not complaining. The plan is that I'll go for a walk around the RIT loop once I get out so that'll be some easy exercise. Provided the weather holds up. I'm working again tomorrow so I'll be going to the gym later in the day.

I'm still feeling pretty good overall. I know part of the sluggishness is the fact that I'm now demanding even more from my body on a weekly basis so I know it'll take a little getting used to. Especially since I was dumb and spent this entire challenge only going to the gym twice a week. Sometimes it wasn't my fault, but damn. I have to say I've totally become that awkward person that pokes myself where I can feel new muscles. My arms are seriously toning up. Like woah. My legs are a little more toned as well but I know those will take some time. My tummy area I will always be overly critical of, but I'm sure it looks different too.

I'm very thrilled about my overall experience with this challenge. I will be continuing it (although Sunday will for sure be a celebration day), but like I say to anyone who asks me, I'm not going to go crazy over it. I'm not going to go buying pounds of pasta at a time, but if I happen to go out with friends or whatever, I'm not going to stress. I'm very excited about this new lifestyle. I went from eating boxes of pasta all by myself to eating entire zucchinis. Kind of reminds me of this gem:

Anywho, I'm going home soon so I'mma go count the minutes. Seems like a worthy thing to do.

G'night all!

I Just Don't Even Know

Well I'm laying in bed here at base knowing I'm not getting more than 5 hours of sleep tonight. Literally I went from relaxing at home all day to becoming the angel of death.

Spent most of the day at home. I decided against going to the gym and tackling Open WOD 13.3, mostly because I plan on going tomorrow morning.

Open WOD 13.3:
12 minutes
150 wall balls (14#)
90 Double Unders
30 Muscle-Ups

If I'd actually done this one, I was going to be very impressed if I got past the wall balls. Even if I had I would have been at a loss of what to do considering I've never gotten a double under and have done minimal work on getting one. Muscle ups - forget about it. Honestly, I'm ok with not going. My legs needed the break.

Went to work the evening at Henrietta and was asked to stay an extra hour. No biggie. Left there and came to RIT for the overnight and the world blew up. Trauma everywhere. So in celebration of a job well done, I assisted in celebrating a friend's birthday with some cake. Yep, I had cake. It was chocolate too! And now I feel like a cow. Well, I don't know if it's the cake or the fact that I've managed to drink my entire body weight in fluid ounces today. I don't know what it was but I just kept refilling that water bottle. I'm back to that bloated feeling I had back when I started drinking half my weight. For some reason that water was just wonderful today. Otherwise I've been eating really well today!

Tomorrow morning is Challenge WOD #3, our last one. I didn't get to #2 because I was working that day. Don't really know what to expect other than I may feel like dying afterwards. I'm sure I can handle whatever they've got coming at us (hopefully).

One week left in the Paleo Challenge. After having that cake I don't know how those last 5 pounds are going to go, but luckily the next time I'll have to step foot in an ambulance base is next Tuesday so I'll have no excuses on why I can't be good after tonight. Nothing but clean eating. The fruit supply in my house is almost gone too so that will no longer be a temptation either, although I've been really good about that aspect lately.

I have to say, I'm nervous as shit about doing that baseline workout again. I've made huge strides as far as endurance and power, but those squat cleans into thrusters are doing a tapdance on my nerves. The burpee box jumps come in close second. Realistically, I just want to be able to finish it. I'll definitely be using a heavier kettlebell and the same height for my box jump. I will most likely also use the same weight for the clusters. I don't want to go too overboard since the end goal is to just finish it this time, but I also don't want to hold myself back and not challenge myself. It's going to be something I'll definitely put a lot of thought into this week. Just freaking out is all. I don't want to end up disappointing myself because I'm getting one measurement, but the measurements I got were pretty different than the ones they got at the gym. So I get psyched over seeing that I took an inch off my hips and arms, but then I think about what my results as far as the coaches go. I've been feeling so good that I'm not really ready for a setback just yet. Mentally I've grown a lot in these past 2 months so I'd like to keep that runner's high as long as possible. I know the changes are there. I wouldn't be wearing smaller pants if they weren't, but my anxiety will always exist regardless of how well I'm doing at any one time. Just something I need to work around.

And it's bedtime. I get a lot of my weekend off again! Can't wait to just relax!

The Only Thing Holding You Back is You

So today I went through a temporary uplift in my mood...only to be crashed right back down to the floor.

Been feeling great these past few days. I'm fairly sore and I can tell my muscles are tired, but we're still going strong and I know I'll be acclimated to the extra workouts in no time.

Yesterday I went to the gym to find another grueling workout.

Strength
5 x 5 weighted pull-ups (or just working on strict pull-ups)

AMRAP (20 min.)
300 m row
30 box jumps
30 Kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls

Obviously I can't do unassisted pull-ups yet so I grabbed my usual assistance band and worked on form. I noticed about the 3rd set in that I wasn't struggling nearly as horribly as usual, so on the last set I used a smaller assistance band. I couldn't do the full pull-up, but I could get myself past halfway, which is huge for me. The AMRAP...don't even get me started. The rowing and the deadlifts weren't bad, but my legs were just so tired. After Monday's workout they were shot. So truly jumping on that box was hard. Especially 30 times. I'm getting better at it though which is good. It still takes some effort considering the fatigue I was in, but I have a lot more power than I did when I first started using a 16" box. I finished 2 rounds plus 334 reps into my 3rd round. My goal was to finish 3 full rounds so I was so close! Grrr

Which leads me to my next point. I am so pissed at that box. Back when I started crossfit on my dinky little 12" box, I wasn't in any rush. The 20" box looked like freaking Mount Everest. Now I'd do anything to be able to jump my ass onto that thing. Why haven't I you say? Well because box jumps are about 70% fear. What person looks at a tall box and says Sure, I'll potentially sacrifice my shins and maybe a little blood just to say I can hop on top of that wooden box. Maybe people that aren't so gravitationally challenged, but still, just looking at that thing is terrifying. I'm sure if I tried hard enough I could find the physical ability. It's the fear factor. One day (hopefully soon).

I literally spent the rest of the day in bed. I got home so exhausted. I had some lunch and crawled (literally) back into bed. It's partially because I had no motivation to sit at my desk and get a bunch of stuff done, but yeah.

Today I went back for more torture. Luckily I think they decided to take it easy on us today. This week has been a high rep/moderate weight kind of week, but since I've outgrown the weights I was originally using, it's ended up being a high rep/higher weight kind of week for me. I'm sure I could have stayed at my usual weights for things like kettlebells, but the 26 pound kettlebell is way too easy for me now, so I've almost been forced into moving up to a 35. The workouts we've been doing prescribes a 53 pound kettlebell for women so I'm definitely not overdoing it by any means.

Skill/Strength ("Snatch Bear" - working up to a max load or technique practice)
1 snatch grip deadlift
1 power snatch
1 OH squat
1 snatch balance
1 behind the neck snatch grip push press

Midline (3 rounds)
10 toes to bar
10 back extensions
20 hollow rocks
10 barbell good mornings

So grateful for the easy day. The snatch bear sequence is one of those sequences where each exercise ends in a way that segways into the next exercise. The big idea behind this sequence in particular was to use a snatch grip, which is a wide grip. I find that I have less strength in the wider grip exercises than the narrow grip ones. With this sequence, you start with your standard deadlift, put the barbell back down then do a power snatch (floor to overhead in one step), from there do an overhead squat, bring the barbell down to your shoulders and do a snatch balance (jump into a squat position while bringing the bar above your head), bring the weight back down and do a push press. Really wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the snatch grip. I think I got the hang of it though. Ended up using 65 pounds. I could feel how shot my quads were when I was trying to do the squats. Eesh. Midline didn't go too badly. I'd like to be able to get my toes to the bar but for now I'm just trying to make it so that I can pull my knees up a little further.

I'm really debating whether or not I should go tomorrow. We'll be doing WOD 13.3, which starts off with 150 wall balls. Yeah...about that. If I wasn't planning on going Saturday morning for the last WOD challenge I would totally just suck it up, but I feel like if I go tomorrow I won't make it Saturday. Such a frustrating feeling. I think the most wall balls I've done at any one time is 40 soooo 150 would be very interesting.

Just out of curiosity because I was befuddled why it feels like I've taken such a physical beating this week, I looked back on the calendar since the beginning of the challenge. This entire time, I haven't been able to get to the gym more than twice in a week. THAT explains it! Now that I know about these shenanigans it amazes me that I've even been improving at all. Well I certainly will after this week!

Today after getting home I showered really quick and relaxed the rest of the day. I eventually had to go to a meeting, which meant putting on jeans for the first time in awhile. I honestly have to say, I don't know what the hell happened. I don't know if it's because I ran them through the dryer twice or what, but those jeans just didn't want to fit me the way I wanted them to. They were just tight in all the wrong places. Now I know it's not because I'm not losing the weight because I've been wearing smaller EMT pants and all my sweatpants now look like I stole them off of my imaginary boyfriend. I just don't know what it was about those jeans today. Is it possible to have a bad-jean day?

I brought the scale out of retirement a couple days ago and now it needs to go back in because I got obsessive again. I made my goal weight finally, so I did what any human being would do and told myself to lose 5 more. Well since then I've become a little obsessive over it so the scale needs to go back into hiding. I know I've been drinking a little more water this week because of the intense workouts, on top of retaining a little bit of it. My eating hasn't been too bad, I still may be under eating  Cheated a couple times, but it wasn't anything unreasonable or something that was truly a game changer. So bye bye scale. See ya in a week. Same thing with you Mr. Tape Measure. Once the weekend hits, life will slow down a little and I'll have a little break from the gym to just let things balance out again. I feel like that's really when I see the body changes. Not the middle of the week in between workouts.

It's been a crazy week so far for me in the paleo world. I guess people have started noticing that I've been toning up and then they look confused when I tell them I've lost 12 pounds. With my body, 12 pounds in itself isn't noticeable simply because I've got a lot more than 12 to lose. But the true test is going to come when we do body fat testing again. I hope to have dropped a couple percentage points, but we'll see. Other than that I'm just trying to keep this body fueled up since I'm doubling the number of times I've been going to the gym. If I'd known that sooner I would have kicked my ass 4 weeks ago...

Time for bed! G'night all!

Great Balls of Chicken!

Sometimes I just blow myself away with the wit I come up with.

So today was kind of an "eh" day. It was pretty crummy out so it kind of brought my mood down to the point that I just got back into bed after a couple hours. Breakfast was two eggs with ground beef and a couple pieces of mango. Lunch was the clam chowder with a pork chop. Dinner was turkey and squash (which was made by RIT and therefore not very good). I'd technically brought dinner with me (chicken meatballs, recipe to follow) and banana pancakes, but I wasn't very enthused by the meatballs, ergo, I went with the turkey and had the banana pancakes for dessert.

I definitely think I overdid it with the fruit a bit today. But that mango was so good! I stayed pretty clean but the sugar intake was a little higher than I expected. It's not even like I was craving it. It just was a good side with whatever I was eating. Definitely need to watch that in the upcoming days. I only have 10 days left in the challenge. I'd really like to lose at least 5 more pounds in that time.

I made a couple "life" goals today. One is to lose 5 more pounds by the end of the challenge, which is March 30th. And then I'd like to lose another 20 by the beginning of summer. With the way I've starting shedding weight, I'd like to think both of those goals are fairly attainable. To get down another 5 pounds before the end of the challenge means I gotta lose half a pound a day. Seems reasonable to me. Although after today I feel like I put another 5 pounds on. Not amused.

I'm joining the Biggest Loser challenge through Henrietta which starts on April 1st. I know I just keep going from challenge to challenge but it'll give me another thing to look forward to, especially with getting ready for the Catalyst Games and wanting to lose another 20 pounds. This challenge is essentially based on the TV show. Lose the biggest percentage of weight in whatever way you can. I forget how long it goes for. I think it's 6 or 8 weeks. I've also started getting some interest on the Hero Rush and getting people on board with coming and running with me. Definitely very excited about that.

Very excited for my new goals. I feel like they are very attainable with the way I've been feeling lately. I just hope I can keep it up. I feel like my body is starting to get in its stride with this whole thing, which is exciting to me. In the beginning I could feel the muscle coming in, but not really the fat burn. It could all still be entirely attributed to my fruit intake. But I feel like it's more than that. Losing weight has always been tough for me because of my hormones, so I really wasn't expecting to be losing pounds per day and I wasn't expecting to be winning any awards with this challenge, but it's been a good challenge for myself to see if I'm strong enough to dedicate myself fully to something like this. Turns out that I am and I'm running with it while I can!

Alright, bedtime, at work again tonight so trying to get as much sleep as I can.

G'night all!