First Month

So it's been about a month with Paleo and it's been a good month. Weekends are still hard though. I still haven't had a completely "clean" week. I blame the Packers, people have bonfires and a little something called flavored creamers.

Anyways, last night Chris made a delicious meal, just some grilled chicken and squash but it was SO good. I'm glad he supports me in my eating choices. Not like he eats unhealthy, but he knows the things I can't/won't eat and makes meals based off of that.

Other things that I've noticed...I think I've mentioned this before but I've been sleeping great. Really deep, too. I used to get up 1-2 times a night for no reason. Now I sleep through the whole night! AND I feel refreshed.

Also, from clean eating, I feel like my abs really popped this past week. This is actually one of my life goals...to obtain 6 pack abs. 80% food, 20% gym!

Realization

So today at the gym I noticed the workout said Deadlifts...which excited me because I have been wanting to work on my form. About 3 weeks ago for the Paleo challenge we had to do body weight (BW) deadlifts, which absolutely killed my back because my technique was so off AND because the weight was too heavy! But I was forced to Rx it because that is what I did the other workouts as. (Rx = prescribed/recommended)

Anyway, like I said, that was about 3 weeks ago, I think my weight for BW deadlift then was 115 (I may have been doing 112.5, can't remember). But TODAY, I totally deadlifted 120 lbs! With great form (thanks to Blue) AND without curving my back like I was a few weeks ago. I totally can do more, I just know it. I'm so excited that I've gotten stronger and have finally learned how to properly deadlift. It's more so a push than a lift and less stress should be on your back.

So, yeah, I love PRs. Why don't more people do this kind of stuff? It doesn't even have to be weight lifting...anything in life...running, cooking, reading, writing, work,....just push yourself to the next level and see what you can handle, mentally, physically and beyond. Totally made my week.

Paleooomg.

I'm kind of in a rut with Paleo. I'm buying the same foods and I've sort of stopped looking up recipes and new foods. So there's that.

I'll work on it. I have time during my day/night to prepare, I just don't do it.

In other news, I did 52 pullups today in 8 minutes (assisted of course). Tomorrow I may be sore...

Goal

I have so many thing I want to accomplish in my 20s and I get this mentality that I'm almost 24 and a half and that I'm not THAT old but I'm also not THAT young, so I need to get on my goals and actually do them. That was a horribly long sentence. Anyways, I've been looking into doing a powerlifting meet for many months. I've researched different meets online but haven't found any in the area. BUT! Yesterday I found one near Chicago on March 16th, 2013. And that's totally enough time for me to start/continue training.

I just want to have some support in this crazy goal of mine.  Anything you do in life (or don't do) there will always be naysayers or people who think you're nuts. But sometimes you have to do what you want to do.

That's my little tidbit for the day. I need to remember this: I don't need to be doing what someone/everyone else is doing.

Day 18

Hello! I haven't blogged in a while about my Paleo adventure, although I have made 3 video blogs. Maybe I will post those. It's been going pretty well.

The first week was rough. I was tired every day even though I had a great night's sleep. Week two was a lot better as my body had adjusted to the lack of sugar.

My only struggle has been the weekend. I could easily have no cheats but I give in to a beer here or a cookie there, especially on football Sundays. Ugh. So I'm just going to realistically designate one cheat per weekend. I've had 10 so far.

I think this is a lifestyle I could get used to as I really do not miss bread and dairy makes my stomach upset anyway. The only things I miss are a little creamer in my coffee, oatmeal and ricecakes lol. Oh and maybe a little icecream (the only dairy I'll do).  Of course, after the challenge it will be nice to have a burger with a bun or a cookie here or there, but I think with this clean eating I just feel better and definitely sleep better too.

Oh, and I had duck for the first time last night. Delicious!

Day 4

OK...so Day 4 and I had my first cheat (non-paleo) meals.

I was at my internship today and there were Krispy Kreme donuts from the newly hired therapist. I couldn't pass one up. I haven't had one of those in years. Heck, maybe a decade. There were also these DELICIOUS chocolate chip bars that someone made and I had probably three of those.  So that was cheat #1. The second cheat was my breadstick at my dad's birthday tonight. No big deal, really, since I had a salad. The last cheat was the cake for dessert, which was oh so good.

So three cheats today. At least the other three meals were healthy.

My stomach is definitely feeling it though. Yucky...now I remember why I am doing all this clean eating....

Day 3

SO, onto Day 3 for the Paleo challenge.

I had a delicious breakfast...Ever try cracking an egg into a coffee mug, adding peppers, tomatoes and onions to it and then microwaving for 45 seconds?  What a treat.

Anyway, I have been so lethargic lately due to my reduction in carbohydrates. For example, yesterday I had the laziest bum of a day. Literally. I sat around and wrote a paper, dilly-dallied on the computer, took a nap and then went to dinner with friends. But you know what? I slept through THE WHOLE NIGHT! That never happens!

So I don't know if that's a coincidence that I slept through the night, or if it's because I'm not eating sugar. Either way, the lack of sugar is definitely making me feel tired. I've read that my body will get used to this.

I haven't had ANY stomach problems either, which is really nice. And I haven't had any "cheat" meals, even though I went out with friends last night. I ordered a steak salad and it was probably the best salad I've ever eaten (Go to Comet on Farwell if you're ever in Milwaukee).

That's about it. Can't wait to go to bed tonight.

Day 1

So...Day 1 of the Paleo challenge in the books.

Here's what I ate:

Breakfast- Hardboiled egg
    Coffee with almond milk
Snack-Scrambled egg with peppers, tomatoes, and onion and almonds
Lunch-Salad romaine, kale, with onion, avocado, peppers, sun flower seeds and vinegar dressing.
Snack-Avocado
Dinner-Turkey burger and sweet potato
Snack-Carrots/almonds

I also tried almond milk for the first time today and I love it!

The WOD for the challenge today was (for time) 75 reps of power snatches...Women's Rx was 55#. Totally Rx'd it....OH YEAH.

I'm tired...Goodnight!

Results

Just had to write down this from today's workout....

5 minutes for each workout..AMRAP (as many reps as possible)

40 back squats 95#
62 double unders
42 hand stand push ups

Paleo Preppin'

It's a little over a week before I begin my Paleo Challenge. I've been eating horribly lately. Well, horrible to me. Mainly because I won't get to eat like this for 2 months and also so that I appear to make more progress during the challenge. Is that considered cheating? lol I've gained 5 pounds in 2 weeks, so that's 5 more pounds that I can lose during the challenge. Measurements, benchmarks and before pictures are next week.

I'm off to the store to buy some sweet potatoes and maybe some other things. I'm planning on making sweet potatoes chips to snack on during the Packer game tomorrow! I love sweet potatoes and these chips are paleo friendly!

Labor Day WOD

Hello!

Yesterday CFG had a Labor Day team WOD with a whole bunch of people. It was awesome.

Here are some more pictures:

 

Holding a front rack while my partner rows.

 

That's me in the middle! Holding an overhead press while my partner did burpees.

Blinded by the sun....holding a tricep dip while my partner does thrusters.

And some pictures from previous workouts...:

 

Front rack lunges

 

 

Pistols...ow.

 

Warming up with rows.

 

I PR'd for the benchmark! Last time I did this WOD I didn't do it in under 30...one month later I did it in 28:43!

Paleo Challenge.

Today I officially signed up for the Paleo Challenge through this website. My CrossFit gym had mentioned it and I thought it would be awesome to try. Through the website you get to keep track of your meals, your measurements, benchmarks (through WODs) and overall progress.  You also get to see your fellow CrossFitters and their progress.

I was a little hesitant to try this "diet", mainly because I don't like trends or fads and certainly don't like eating healthy to be considered a "diet".  I'd rather call it the Paleo "lifestyle", or "clean eating", not a diet.  But I figured this way of eating has some serious benefits, physically and beyond.  I have also been noticing how sensitive my stomach is to certain foods, dairy and grains mostly, and figured I might as well give it a shot.

If you're curious as to what the Paleo diet looks like, this is basically it.

 

So...no dairy food (not a problem for me), no cereal grains (oatmeal, breads, pizza, etc) no legumes (beans, peas, peanut butter, no alcohol.)

Ok, so the peantbutter and alcohol thing is going to be extremely hard. However, I can have 6 oz of red wine a night.

This challenge starts Sept 17 and ends November 18th. This will be my next "hobby"!

Bunion.

I have a  bunion on my right foot and it's gotten bigger in the last year or so.

I guess people get surgery to correct bunions, but I don't want to do that in fear of my running/working out days to be over/significantly limited.  But I guess it's just going to get worse....

So I think in order to reach my running/working out goals I'm just going to plan to work super hard this upcoming year, crank out lots of races and PRs......and then get the surgery.

THEN, if a doctor tells me I can't run as much anymore, I will have already achieved my running goals and won't be too heartbroken.

SO, here's some goals for the rest of 2012 and 2013....

1. Run a 10K in under an hour.
2. Run a 15K
3. Increase my 3 lifts (BP, DL, Squat)
4. Do a powerlifting meet
5. Run a half marathon.

Shove it, bunion!

Squats

We did mostly squats at CrossFit today.

My numbers:

Overhead squat-70
Front squat-115
Back squat-130

Squat Cleans

So proud of my progress. Today, I did:

Squat Cleans 65#
Tricep Dips
30-20-10

Basically, 30 Squat cleans, 30 tricep dips, 20 squat cleans, 20 tricep drips..etc.

I really don't like cleans, but with the squat in there, (which I love) it was bearable. I am so excited that I was able to do Rx (what is recommended weight).  Usually after so many reps of something, my arms give out, but I was able to do the whole workout with 65# :) That's 60 reps!

Oh hey

Yesterday's WOD was exhausting.

First, 50 thrusters (basically squat down and then push the bar up over your head)

 

Then 100 double-unders (the rope goes under your feet twice with one jump) or 300 singles. I alternated, so I did about 250 jumps.

 Lastly, we had to run 400 m with a 25 pound plate (guys had to do 35)

It was really awkward running with the weight. I finished it all in about 12 minutes.

Oh yeah, did I mention I ran my first 10k on Sunday?

Thursday's WOD

Today's workout was great.

10 Power snatches 65/95  I did 45#
20 toes to bar
400 m run
50 sit ups
400m run
20 toes to bar
10 power snatches 65/95

It was raining/storming during the workout so Frank said we could choose between the 400m run outside in the rain or a 400m row.  I chose the row.  I wish I had chosen the run outside since that would have been a nice cool-off. Maybe a little risky with the lightning strikes, but fun all the same.

I've been focusing more on "clean" eating.  The past few months I've been eating oatmeal. I've never been a big oatmeal person but I tried the flavored stuff in the little pouches and I loved them.  Five pouches are about 2 or 3 bucks.  So like I said, I've been trying to eat fresher foods and foods that are not processed.  I decided to make my own oatmeal.  I  bought some rolled oats at the store the other day, put some in a bowl, added a little milk and water, a little sugar/cinnamon and microwaved for a minute and a half. It looks EXACTLY like the pouches of oatmeal I would buy, but without all the added stuff.  Once that is down cooking I add fruit, like blueberries, bananas and grapes to it. Deeeelish!

One thing I must add, like I said before, those oatmeal pouches cost about 2 to 3 dollars for 5. I bought 3/4 of a pound of rolled oats for 70 cents! I can probably make at least 15 oatmeal pouches with that. SO much cheaper.

Anyways, I'm a bit annoyed that I love almonds, cashews and walnuts so much and yet they are so expensive.

Resting on Mondays

I think I will start this thing where I don't work out on Mondays. It's been working out great for me.

On Sunday nights I always feel so blah from a weekend of poor eating and adult beverages that I tell myself a good CrossFit sweat session on Monday morning will do wonders.

Then I wake up on Monday and think...uh yeah no way.  That's kind of what happened today.  And then I feel sorta guilty for not working out at all.

So I'm just going to not plan on ever working out on Mondays so that I won't ever be disappointed.

I did get a little workout in this weekend.....

Overheard squats..my favorite!

Taking it easy

I skipped CrossFit today because my lumbar is a little strained from deadlifts on Friday.  Instead I ran 6 miles and am now enjoying a peanut butter chocolate banana protein shake. Delish!

"Nothing we can't handle!"

Today was the closest I ever got to dying from exercise!

Friday WODs are usually the toughest and today was definitely that. If you're not a CrossFitter you won't understand this (or maybe you will) but this was what we did:

"300" work out
25 Pull ups
50 Deadlifts 135/95 (I did 75#)50 Pushups
50 Box Jumps 24in/20in
50 Floor Wipers with barbell used for deads (Lay on floor, barbell over chest like a benchpress and pendulum your legs left and right)
50 total Single-Arm Clean-and-Press with 35/25 lbs Kettlebell (so alt arms)
25 Pull ups

The time to finish it in was 30 minutes...and I totally didn't make it under that time.  SHIT. WAS. HARD. I was sweating 5 times more than I ever did from Spin class. I had a fly that kept landing on me because of the moisture emanating from my slick bod.  I ended up falling 20 pull ups short by the time the timer hit 30 minutes, but the other three people encouraged me to finish up the workout, so I did (I wouldn't have, otherwise, honestly).

After that I met up with my running friend Kourtney and we ran 6 miles along the Oak Leaf Trail. We intended to go for 7 miles but it was so darn hot. We jogged past a 60+ year old gentleman runner who smiled at us and said "Nothing we can't handle!" referring to the heat and fatigue we were feeling. I felt motivated after that (and decided to name this entry title after his phrase).  I hope to be old someday and still have the strength and motivation to keep active like that.

Anyways...you're stronger than you think you are! Have a great weekend!