Nifty Fifty

Yesterday I completed my fiftieth WOD of the year. I am kind of in shock, to be honest, because it is almost April and I am still being consistent. I think I have put so many safeguards in place (training sessions, running my mouth, this blog) that I would be humiliated if I fell off now, but that hasn't stopped me in the past. I guess the difference is I am emotionally invested in changing my life forever this time. When I was in college and was seriously anorexic (the kind you read about in magazines...gross!) I don't think I ever realized that you have to eat and move everyday for the rest of your life. I couldn't see that far. Now that I am old and really focused on being healthy rather than a size 0, I get the whole lifestyle change as a reality.

WOD #50
Helen 14:52
3 Rounds:
Run 200m
21 KB Swings 35lb
12 Jumping pullups

This was a hard one for me, even though Helen is usually one of my favorites. I had never done full weight, but also we did shoulder press and ring rows as the strength before the WOD so I was dead. Nonetheless I could of done better.

Food:
Breakfast:
20 g protein powder mixed with water (3 blocks protein)
bagel thin (1 block carb) with 1.5 tsp peanut butter (3 block fat)
6 inches banana (2 blocks carb)

Snack one:
6 almonds (2 block fat)
2 oz turkey jerky (2 block protein)
1 apple (2 block carbs)

Lunch:
Salmon burger (3 blocks protein)
1 bagel thin (1 block carbs)
1/2 cantalope (2 blocks carbs)
3 tbps avacado (3 block fats)

Snack 2:
Zone bar (2 blocks fat, proteins, carbs)

Dinner:
Turkey tacos at Cassie's

Workout for Day:
Yoga (I'm running out of yoga steam, but I am going to make myself go to make sure I have active rest. It's a cardio class and pretty hard.)

Food for Wednesday

Breakfast:
I took a tip from Jen C and had a protein shake (just the water and protein), some oatmeal, and nuts.

Snack 1:
Jerky, nuts, and banana

Lunch:
Chicken Salad

Snack 2:
Zone Bar

Dinner:
Salmon burger
skim cheese
flat bread
lettuce
tomato
1/4 avacado

Not Fun. That's All She Wrote.

I don't know how I didn't publish this, so I missed it...just put it in. Can't fix the order because I'm an idiot.

WOD #47 March 23, 2011

AMRAP in 5 minutes:
5 Clean and Jerk 43 lbs
9 ring row
7 Push up
(2 full rounds, and 2 ring rows)

Then rest 3 min

AMRAP in 5 min
5 power clean 53 lbs
9 Ring Rows
7 Push up
(2 full rounds, and 6 ring rows)

Then rest 3 min

AMRAP in 5 min
5 clean and jerks 53 lb
5 burpees
(2 full rounds and 2 burpees)

I'm Back

I've fallen off the blogging a bit, and I know I've got to step it up. I hopefully am getting internet back at my house tonight, so I will no longer be writing this on the hush at work. It's like the Oregon Trail at home...no internet! Crazy!

The Zone Challenge is going great. 2 weeks in, I'm down a bit over 10 lbs. I'm also clean and sober off the coke...Diet Coke. ;) I'm feeling good. This past weekend my best friend was in and I didn't go off of the Zone once. We went out to dinner and shopping Saturday night, and when all the girls went and got frozen yogurt, I WALKED TO THE CAR and brought it around in order to not be tempted. I didn't need the treat, and I didn't miss it. Feels great!

Today's food:

Breakfast:
Zone Shake

Snack 1:
4 hard-boiled egg whites
Hummos
almonds

Lunch:
3 oz chicken
broccoli and cantalope
avacado

Snack 2:
Zone Bar

Dinner:
Zone Enchilada by Jen C...so good!

Also, I ran an 800 last night. I wasn't able to go non-stop, but I did pretty good and I feel like I'm getting closer to where I need to be.

WOD #48
Max 800m
6:54

WOD #49
12: 44

For Time:
300 m Row
15 Hang Squat Cleans 23 lbs
15 V-ups
12 Hang Power Cleans 23 lbs
12 V-ups
9 Hang Power Cleans 23 lbs
9 V-ups
300 m Row

Guess How Many People Get To This Blog Based On The Word "Snatch"??

This was a pretty good day at Crossfit for me. Sadly, I now do my box jumps on gymnastic mats because I am speshil. But in both rounds of the warm-ups, I was able to do 10 in a row "consecutively". I can't be that excited because I'm pretty sure that my height was like 6 inches, but a win is a win.

WOD# 45
Max 400 m
2:53

WOD# 46
25 Power Snatches at 43lb
5 squats EMOM
3:42

Breakfast:
Shake

Snack 1:
4 clementines
2 oz turkey jerky
6 almonds

Lunch:
Salad with chicken on top, and dressing

Snack 2:
Zone bar

Dinner:
Kellie is making us steak and green beans, and for the fat...she will be serving, and I quote, "Deez nuts". I'm pretty excited. ;)

6 Lbs Down!

I lost six pounds the first week of the Zone Challenge! Yay! That's pretty cool. It wasn't that hard, at all, except for the Diet Coke. I made Zone Lasagne yesterday and even the husband ate it. :) Sectionals week 1 was this past weekend, it was incredible. People are so talented...it is amazing to see what the body is capable of. Seriously.

March 18, 2011
WOD #43
Shoulder Press 3-3-3
48-53-53

WOD #44
AMRAP in 12 Min
5 Ring Rows
5 Push ups
10 Squats

8 rounds + 2 ring rows

Breakfast:
Shake

Snack 1:
4 clementines
2 oz turkey jerky
6 almonds

Lunch:
Zone Lasagne (3 blocks)

Snack 2: Zone Bar

Dinner:
Chipotle burrito bowl before my meeting, after gym

In The Zone

Last night, I went to Cassie's for dinner with Ross, Jen and Jon. It was really fun to just hang out, and I love that I can be around people who are so well-versed in Crossfit and healthy eating. We had salmon patties (surprisingly delicious), these whole wheat bagel buns, avacados, strawberries, and tomatoes. I used to be so intimidated by the Crossfit crew (except for Cassie...you can't be intimidated by someone who laughs constantly!) but I really am starting to feel at home around these people. Which is great. ;)

The Zone is easy, despite my attempts to f&*% things up left and right. This morning, for instance, I was having a hard time getting the shake to blend. Obviously, the best idea would be to put a wooden spoon into the (blending) blender, right? I pull the spoon out and a chunk of it is missing. I stood there for like 3 minutes thinking, "Will I just find the chunk when I'm eating this and throw it out?" but I realized splinters in the throat aren't that exciting. I was beyond late so I threw a scoop of protein powder, a tsp and a half of pb in a plastic bag, and grabbed a cup measuring cup. Why? Because I was out of fruit! So I ran to Tropical Smoothie and was like, "Charge me whatever you want, but I need two cups of berries, some water, some ice, and throw this powder and peanut butter in". The lady (ok, 12 year old) behind the counter was really nice and only charged me 4 dollars. I should of specified only a bit of ice, because the smoothie ended up tasting like strawberry water. But whatever, the important part is that I didn't go off of the zone.

Snack one:
2 oz turkey jerky
6 almonds
an apple

Lunch:
6 hard boiled egg whites (edit: this is way too many egg whites, I know that now after trying to eat. I was just trying to avoid eating chicken. Must do something else, I'm about to die.)
hummos
9 almonds

Snack two:
Zone bar

Dinner:
Sushi...have to figure out exactly how to Zone it, but I know Kellie will help.

I'm really sore from whatever WODs I've been doing lately. I'm also DREADING running this weekend, but I know I have to. It is just not something that I'm good at, but I really want to get better. I'm really pumped to watch everyone compete this weekend, though, so maybe I can get excited off of that and get into the running spirit.

Sectionals WOD: Or, Why Am I So Easily Defeated???

Yesterday was day 2 of the Zone Challenge. Pretty easy, no tears, although I would really like to have a Diet Coke. I am a junkie. If I could shoot it into my arm, I think I would. I was all pumped up from the excitement of being on point with the Challenge when I walked into the box.

I'm going to say something here that is going to make Shain go "Duh" and not in a "Duh, winning" kind of way. The way something is presented to me can make a HUGE difference in how I handle it. For instance, the Sectionals WOD that I did yesterday. If it was JUST another WOD, it would of been a regular day at Crossfit. (Well, maybe not...the double unders I did for a warm-up and max effort ring rows kind of wore me out...but still...) Instead, JUST KNOWING THIS WAS A SECTIONALS WOD made it twice as hard as it should of been. The evidence: 10 minutes is not that long. I can jump-rope pretty well usually. The one factor that could of thrown me off was that I don't have a TON of practice with the snatch (seriously, can they call this something else???) but there was no reason it had to be such a hard workout. I hate that. I walked away feeling like I had done poorly and that makes me feel really terrible. The only good news? I still know that the workouts I do at Crossfit are much more productive than what I'd be doing at a globo gym.

WOD #42
Sectionals WOD
2 Rounds, 60 Singles and 6 Snatches

AMRAP in 10 Minutes
60 singles
15 Snatches (38 lbs)

Challenge Day 3:
Shake for breakfast

Snack #1:
4 Clementines
2 oz turkey jerky
6 almonds

Lunch:
3 oz chicken
3/4 grapefruit
2 cups zuchini (I'm not using this as my carb again once I'm done...I had to just choke it down...soooooooo much zuchini!)
3 tbs avacado

Snack #2
Zone bar

Dinner:
Whatever Jen C feeds us! :)

Save The Drama For Your Mama

WOD #41
Linda 25:42
10! Deadlift (105lb), Hand-release push-ups, Squat clean (43lb)

Linda is a B*TCH. I should of known when Shain told me this was called the 3 Bars of Death. We subbed out the bench press for push-ups, altho I think bench press would of been much easier. ;) Directly after the WOD I fell on the floor and sobbed for no apparent reason, but I'm going to blame it on the Diet Coke Detox. Kellie is so amazing, she was there to help me feel better. I felt like an idiot but I was so emotional. And I have NO idea why. All day my stomach was killing me and I was exhausted, so working out was a big accomplishment for me. I really have made strides in that area, because back in the day a hang nail was enough to keep me from going to the gym.

When I got home last night, Danny told me that the fridge had been left open all day and all of the food in the fridge had spoiled. &*(#! Visions of my hard-boiled eggs danced in my head. I was not in the right place to go to the grocery store, so I had to re-group. My breakfast shake was still fine.

Snack #1 is now:
2 oz turkey jerkey
6 almonds
2 clementines
1/4 c hummos (alone. yes. because I thought the clementines were 2 blocks. OY VEY).

Lunch would have to be picked up at Whole Foods:
3 oz pre-made chicken,
3 tbs avacado
3/4 of a grapefruit.
2 c. zuchchini


Snack #2 is still a bar. And dinner will be made by me and hubby tonight...he doesn't have a meeting and I am xfitting at 5...so I get a "bonus" night with him! It's almost like we are married! Yay!

In all honesty, I'm so grateful I met Cassie, Kellie and Jen and I'm thrilled that I'm doing the challenge. And if I could just kick the addiction...

Detox

I'm in a bad way. I am DYING for a Diet Coke. Like, bad. A lot of changes are happening at my office, and like a junkie, the minute I'm stressed, I think of my addiction the minute things get rough.

I'm really happy that I'm going to kick this. I think I will feel so much "cleaner" without the aspartame and carmel coloring and whatever else in my body.

Day 1

Last night I had my first meeting with Kellie, Jen and Cassie to work out the plans for the Challenge. I'm excited! I also realized that I am not really that well-versed in the Zone, no matter what I thought. I learned a ton from the girls. First on the list? Breakfast. I will be eating the following:

1 scoop (20 g protein) of protein powder
1 c blueberries
1 c strawberries
1.5 tsp peanut butter
4 ice cubes blended

Snack: 2 hard boiled egg whites with 1/4 c hummos (1 block) and then 1 oz turkey jerkey, 1/2 nectarine and 3 almonds (1 block)

Lunch: I didn't get home until 11 pm last night (late for me, seriously late!) so I thought I'd just throw a frozen Zone meal into the bag.

Snack: Zone bar

Dinner: I'm running to dinner with a friend. I'm going to either do a salad (veggies, protein and dressing on side) or veggies and protein.
___________
It's 1:07 and already I had to edit the day. (I'm writing this from my cell phone in the back of a meeting.)

Breakfast was yummy, once I figured out that I needed to add water. At first it really looked like colored sand and I was yelling "What is wrong with my shake?!?!" confusing Danny and my dog. I was also running late, and about 2 seconds from just downing a bunch of colored protein powder, which is what it all looked like. :)

I was starving about two hours later, so I had 1 block of my snack. An hour after that, I had the other block. Then, since my office is in complete chaos, my boss announced that we are going to lunch as a company for a meeting. My food was at the other office!!! EEK! So I texted Cassie to make sure I wasn't cheating (I wasn't) and ordered a salad with just lettuce and tomatoes, added turkey, and then put a pretty minimal amount of oil and vinegar on the salad. I'm feeling good. I will say that giving up Diet Coke is making me insane already and I think it's screwing with my appetite, as visions of my Zone bar are already dancing in my head. I can tough it out, though, and I am ready for the rest of the day. :) The girls are so knowledgable and helpful and I'm really lucky.

UPDATE: So before Xfit, I had a Zone bar. Then for dinner, I had 3 oz or so of fish and a roasted red pepper salad, which I'm hoping was enough to count for 3 block of carbs and fats. (I had dinner with a friend at a tapas bar, which is great for small portions but plain veggies were not plentiful on the menu!)

Another aspect of the Zone Challenge are the workouts.

M: Crossfit
T: Yoga
W: Crossfit
Th: Off
Fri: Crossfit
Sat: Crossfit and run 2 extra WOD
Sun: Work up to running 2 miles.

The CHALLENGE

Starting tomorrow, I'm doing the 30 Day Zone Challenge with Cassie, Jen and Kellie! I'm excited but nervous. Mostly nervous because I'm going to have to give up Diet Coke. I don't think people understand what an addict I am. It is sad. And scary. And totally overwhelming. I've tried to kick the habit before, but I am just not able. I had half a soda on Saturday and Sunday trying to see if I could get there fast, but the headaches and nausea is so much to take. Kellie happens to be a detox nurse, so I will be relying heavily on her to get this out of my system!

You Should See My Snatch!

TJ was so funny when we were doing the back squat part of this. When I finally finished, I asked him "What was my weight?" and he said "223". My heart STOPPED. I finally broke into the 200s! And it wasn't even that hard. I screamed. "Really??!?!?!?!" He corrected himself. "123." I was so bummed. LOL.

March 11th
WOD #38 Back Squat 5-5-5-5-5
83-93-103-113-123

WOD #39
AMRAP 15 Min
4 Rounds and 2 SDHP

9 SDHP 35 lb kb
15 sit ups
9 Push Press (15 lb dumbbells)
Row 200

The Olympic Weight Lifting Seminar was fun but actually wore me out. There was a lot of people there. Even the warm-up was (emotionally) exhausting...I got to run in a heat with Jen C and Mike Hsu. Yeah, that is really a good way to make me feel good about myself and my running abilities. They had run a half-marathon that morning and still could smoke me. Good lord.

WOD #40 March 12th
Isabel 1:49
30 Power Snatches, 28lbs, for time
I should of gone higher...but I had never really done power snatches. If I had done this at the RX'd weight (83, I think) this would of been a Whiteboard time! ;) So close, yet so far.

Everytime A Woman Deadlifts, An Angel Gets Her Wings

Cindy left me a little sore, but I still got to the box on Monday. It was "Fran" and it was fun to watch everyone go hard and puke. You know, because that's what Crossfit is all about.

The first part of the WOD went great. At first, Shain said he wanted me to do 7/30/7 and I was a little scared. After the first 10 squats in the first round, he was like, "Ok, we are scaling this to 15" which kind of threw me off, because seriously I was doing the best squats I could possibly do. I was really going as fast as possible. It's not often that I'm like, "But? I can do this!" But I think he ended up being right, since it took me 10 seconds to do the Push Press and Deadlifts each and then 30 squats would of been a ten minute venture by the 4th or so round.


WOD #36 7:59
5 rounds for time of:
7 Deadlifts 73 lbs
15 Air Squats
7 Dumbbell Push Press 10 lbs

WOD #37
Run 400m. Everytime you stop, add 10 sit-ups. If you don't start running after 5 seconds, add another 10 seconds.

I don't want to go into this. Let's just say I ended up doing 90 situps.

PLEASE SAY HI

I just saw that I have readers in Sweden, South Korea, Canada and Russia. Say hi, guys! Glad to have you. And confused, because the only people who have ever commented on my posts are the like 6 people I've told about it! :)

Sometimes You Can Only Look Up. This Is One Of Those Times.

When I was 16, Rachel and Ross broke up. (You know, on Friends.) I was so heart-broken. Maybe, one might say, a little too heart-broken. You see, at the time, I had my own "Ross" (Kevin). And I really thought that if Rachel and Ross could make it work, then OBVIOUSLY me and Kevin could make it work.

Being dramatic and 16, my life was seriously disturbed for a week or so until I knew what happened on the next episode. (Where is this going?? I'll tie it up in a second, I promise). I think I started to get confused as to where my life was and where the characters life were, you know? Anyway, one of the days I didn't even want to go to school. My mom asked me what was going on, and I said "Ross broke up with me". She looked so confused and then I realized, 1) I was crazy and 2) You can't just stop your life because bad things happen (even if they happen to your favorite tv characters).

Last week was really challenging and I am SHOCKED that I got to the gym for the 3 times that I did. Well, not shocked, because I had to put a lot of energy in getting my ass to the box. (That sounds sexual but it isn't.)

Last year, some really terrible things happened in my life and I didn't get to the gym for 2 months. Did missing Crossfit make those terrible things any better? Nope. It just meant that those terrible things happened AND I had to stress about getting back to the gym. So this realization has made my life a little bit easier, and my goals a little bit stronger. GET TO THE GYM.

WOD #34 10:16 (3/4/11)
3 rounds for time of:
200 m Run
6 Sumo Deadlift High-pulls 43 lbs
12 Walking Lunges

WOD #35 (3/6/11)
Cindy 7 full rounds, 5 ring-rows and 5 push-ups
5 Ring-rows
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

Crossfit: If It Were Easy, It'd Be Your Mom

I have this problem. When I'm doing great in Crossfit, I feel fabulous. When I'm not, I feel shitty. Seriously. So since the last few WODs haven't been spectacular, combined with my crappy ankle, I've been bummed. I went back to train last night, and I do have to say that I'm proud of this: I'm right on track to get my 200 WODs for the year! That's a big accomplishment for me, and being 2 full months into 2011 and still on track is huge. Danny was in a car accident this weekend so I didn't get in to do my 3rd WOD over the weekend, which bummed me out, but unlike the Rachel of old I just got my shit together and came in. My head is all over the place, though, which doesn't make for a fabulous workout. I think (and Shain might not agree) that I'm past making too many excuses and I'm getting better at just doing "it"...whatever the "it" of the moment is. As long as it's not box jumps, obviously.

The whole 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 thing is not easy for me. Especially since (this is so ridiculous) I usually spend the first few rounds re-doing the math in my head to figure out when I'm past 50% of the workout. Yes, it is after I've done the 10-9-8 rounds, but that doesn't make 7-6-5 any easier. But I do analyize the percentage done throughout the whole workout. Does this make me Rain Man? I don't know. ;)

WOD #32
11:31
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Wall balls 10lb, 8 ft target
Power Clean 43 lbs

WOD #33
500m Row
5 squats EMOM
3:57

I just compared this to:

Row 1000, 5 squats EMOM
22 mins 55 secs
Monday, November 15, 2010

That must of been one hellish workout. Good to see I've made some improvements!

OMG. 22 min. I would kill myself.