GOAL CRUSHER!!!

After an e-mail from the gym went out about only being allowed to attend one Strength and Conditioning class per day, I inquired with our Endurance coach as to why.  The take away from the discussion in my own words was this: "If you feel like you need another workout, you're doing it wrong.  Your body needs the rest, especially if you're keeping with the mentality and following through with the work load of go big or go home."

That really lit the fire under my ass.  I didn't realize I was basically sabotaging my success.  Not this week.

Thursday's WOD consisted of 3 rounds of 20 (10 each arm) single arm kettlebell swings (KBS), 20 (10 each arm) shoulder to over head (STOH) KBS, and then 20 goblet squats.  Instead of taking the easy road and using a 20# kettlebell, I decided to grab the 25 and go with it.  There were some STOHs that I thought, "there's no way this is getting above your ear".  But I pushed through and even though I was the last one done, I still finished the WOD strong and tired.

Friday turned a new page in the workout log.  We worked on 3x6 Romanian deadlifts (RDL), and 3x4 deadlifts (DLs).  My RDL ended with 123#s and my DLs ended with 143#!  That was 16lbs over my body weight...FOUR TIMES!  And then we had death by 10Ms.  The last time I did DB10Ms I only made it to 12 before getting caught by the clock back on 9.6.2012.  Friday I made it to 13 and got caught right at the end.

As if Friday and Thursday weren't enough, Saturday just put the ghee on my sweet potato!  Jan 1, 2013 I decided to embark on the Whole30 challenge.  Stricter than Paleo for 30 days.  Granted I made it to Thursday 1.31.2013 and had Yo My Goodness (ick) and then again until Saturday 2.9.2013 where I had Orange Leaf (much better!) and trashed Sunday's diet (41 days) had cake batter, vanilla wafers and peanut butter, and then the following day a piece of cake and my No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter bars.  BUT 2.16 became the game changer, weigh in and retest.

Here are the before and after measurements from the very organized Stephanie Teague, CrossFit Endurance extraordinaire who encouraged me and others to join her in this journey.

73# push press just wasn't happening, so I stripped the 10s and added the 5s and knocked it out with some encouragement from my Whole30 buddy Laura.  I initially tried 143# on the back squat but had to dump it for the first time ever.  That was a fun experience.  Then I tried 133# and almost stopped.

"You wanna add the 2.5s?" - Laura
"You're not done till you dump it?" - Me.

So we threw on the 2.5s and knocked out the 138.  Body weight + 13. Goal.Crushed.

And the Fight Gone Bad test and retest results:


I went big and then home today!  I did it right, left everything on the gym floor. A huge thank you to CrossFit Valley Park for providing an awesome facility with a positive and encouraging atmosphere! I owe a lot of my success to all the coaches who have pushed me to be my best.

To my Whole30 buddy Laura who was just so demanding throughout the FBG workout, pushing me to increase my FBG Score by 66 points (do one more..just one more!).  She was incredible throughout this entire journey!  I am so proud of her and thankful for her encouragement this year!  Everyone needs a Laura in their life.

It's amazing what one month, goals and a lot of encouragement will get you.  As for Whole30, I found it wasn't that horrible to follow; however, I will become a human experiment over the next few weeks as I try to add back protein powder, honey and the occasional Paleo desert.  I will definitely stick with Paleo though, it's not nearly as challenging as I initially thought it would be.

 Make a goal and go for it. Today!

WHOLE30...and then some.

One thing I have realized over the past 30+ days is that I've never had a positive relationship with food.  Even though I've known this for quite sometime, I've recently realized how it has impacted my life.  Growing up, I was a pretty active kid.  Riding my bike, swimming at my grandparents, and softball every summer.

Looking back my eating habits were horrible.  Nothing was consistent, ate whatever was quick, and often times would over indulge on junk.  I didn't learn to really cook until my 20's.  Around the time my parents divorced I had put on quite a bit of weight.  Sure the bag of Reeses peanut butter cups would disappear in a matter of a week, and as for the Cheetos Puffs, consider them gone.  Then junior high came around and it was not a pretty sight.  I started becoming very self conscious about people seeing me eat.  Not that people were watching, but they might.  Logically it doesn't make sense; however, I nearly stopped eating lunch.  I dropped to a very nasty weight.  I was too thin.

In high school, I still had horrible habits, but started getting comfortable eating in front of people.  Usually lunch consisted of 2 cookies and chocolate milk...healthy? Wrong.  Then after high school and in parts of college, I started gaining weight.  I was a home owner at 19, still going to school full time and beyond stressed out, without healthy eating habits.  By 22, I was probably at my highest weight in the low 130's.  I turned my life around and ended a relationship with my boyfriend, let him keep the house and in turn I lost a lot of stress.  I started working out on a regular basis and found running.  Again, trying to live making the same crappy food decisions and trying to burn off the calories was not producing the results I wanted.  By 26, I ran my first marathon and many half marathons; however, I still had not changed my food decisions.  Got up to my all time high in April of 2012 at 133.8.  

July 2013 I decided the week of my birthday, that it was time to take a drastic leap forward. I joined CrossFit Valley Park and haven't stopped since.  It was in December when Stephanie Teague started a conversation about Whole30 and how the gym was going to do a weigh in, measurements and baseline testing.  So I downloaded the book to my Kindle and was enthralled with "It Starts With Food".  I started December 26th by trying Paleo, and January 1, I started my Whole30 Challenge.  Ever since, my life has been turned upside down.  I'm preparing healthy food that tastes amazing, I've been in contact with my Whole 30 buddy Laura, who has been absolutely amazing throughout this whole process.  I'm at the weight I want to be and I think I'm shaving off substantial amounts of time in my workouts.  I've set some goals that I'm looking forward to crushing this year, and some of them are about to be accomplished ahead of schedule.

My skin has done a complete 180, I don't feel sluggish and bloated all the time.  I've even noticed that my pallet has changed.  I went from eating cookies and cakes to loving the natural sweetness of fruit and the amazing world of sweet potatoes!  My first "experiment" after day 31, was to eat YoMy Goodness with my husband since he just got home from training.  In all honesty, all I could taste was this sugary syrup taste.  That next day, I didn't feel HORRIBLE; however, I did not feel great like I had the past 30 days.  Frozen yogurt has definitely made it to my "Not Worth It" list.  This journey has been amazing so far.  I'm going to keep on the Whole 30 until after the CrossFit Open.  After that point, I will be following a Paleo diet only to venture outside of the Paleo realm for special occasions.  I mean really.special.occasions.

I have to say thank you to Stephanie for introducing me to a new life, Laura for helping me overcome these insane cravings, and my husband for putting up with me during my transition and listening to me on my soap box about why cereal is crap (as he eats a bite of dinner in the form of Lucky Charms).

Losing it for Louisiana

It's a new year and like many people, I've made a weight loss resolution.  My goal is to lose 2 pounds per week for 8 weeks in preparation for my second marathon in New Orleans.  I started on 01.02.2012 at 133.4 pounds, my record high.


I started using the livestrong.com program "MyPlate".  It's a free service that helps you track your caloric input and output.  Step 1, set a goal.  Setting this goal is an important step, for me it meant giving meaning and a purpose to the plan of losing weight.  It's that first conscious step to making a change in my life.  It was a time to consider whether to gain weight, lose weight or maintain my current weight.  By providing your age, height, weight, your weight goal and your activity level, they are able to calculate your BMR, using the Harris Benedict Formula, and project the amount of calories to be consumed to achieve your goals.  I've found both the website and the free iPhone app have intuitive and very easy to use user interfaces to input my food, activities, and water.  As you input values, it updates your calories left for the day to keep you in check with your daily goal.


What I think is great about this service is that it really makes me think about what I'm consuming.  I've found that this has been a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because it's causing an awareness of what I'm consuming, but a curse due to the frustrations of the nutritional labeling system.  For example the nutritional label from a can of soup.

At first glance, I would think that this can of soup would contain 120 calories; however, there are 2 servings per container.  How many people do you know that opens a can of soup and only eats half the can?  I doubt many people do.  I've found this across many brands, so it must a regulation of the FDA for nutritional labeling.


One evening, in the spirit of saving resources and time, I decided to go to a Schnucks store that was behind my bank instead of driving 1.5 miles to a Trader Joe's.  I went into the store with the intention of getting a salad for dinner that was under 300 calories.  Within the Schnucks store they have a whole "cafe" area dedicated to in-store prepared foods.  I thought, this will be great, they've already portioned them out I just need to read the nutritional labels and be on my way.  To my surprise and frustration I discovered that none of their salads had a food label on them.  I looked at other side dishes that were prepared, again no label.


I considered leaving and going to Trader Joe's without saying anything; however, I decided to ask someone behind the cafe counter about the issue.  The lady was very polite and said, "Yes, they should all be labeled."  I explained that none of them were labeled with the nutritional facts, they only had the listed ingredients.  I told her that it was very frustrating that they didn't provide this information.  I left the store without purchasing anything and purchased my nutrition-labeled salad from Trader Joe's.


As they say, if it's not one thing it's another.  Lesson learned, go with what you know and pay attention to the serving size.  I think the FDA made great strides in modifying the food pyramid, and I would love to see an improvement in the nutrition facts as well.  For example, I would think a viable soup solution would be to either a) generate the nutritional label based on entire can's contents if it has less than 3 cups of contents b) produce smaller cans to fit the 1 cup serving size without increasing the price of each can.  I think in a perfect grocery store, each item sold would be an individual serving with multiple servings in a case.

The apartment success!

After almost 5 months in my new apartment, I absolutely love it.  The area is quiet but things are easily accessible.  I have hilly and flat areas to train on, as well as some trails within 5 miles.

The new apartment has 6 out of the 7 features I initially posted about on 2.5.2011.  I don't have closed stairwells, but the neighbors are relatively quiet.   I now own a washer and dryer set, which really cuts down on the time and money dedicated to "laundry night".  My kitchen is enormous and the layout is more open than my last apartment.  I find it's easier and less stressful hosting parties and get-togethers, that is when they're not surprise birthday parties.

Overall, I am very pleased with the decision I made, and will call it a success!

Finally an Update!

It's been about a month now since I've written a new blog post. Here we go!

After a few weeks of the 4 hour body I gave up because it was messing with my system and it proved to be fairly difficult to maintain. So instead of trying to find that quick fix, I decided to put forth the workout effort and get back into a routine. I'm now following the GSP Rush Fit workout program which feels very much like crossfit as far as the moves are concerned; however, it's not as heavy as crossfit in the sense of weights. I only use 2 ten pound dumbbells. I recently got a cold which prevented me from working out the past few days, but I got a good run in today (7.25 miles), which my body felt good my cardio didn't feel as strong as it should be. I have 3 weeks till my half-marathon (2 weekends) so now it's time to get my butt in gear and get to work. I started back at my chiropractor this past week due to some shin pains and super tight hamstrings. So hopefully the adjustments will help my running endurance by keeping my hips in line. After realizing my calves were so wrecked I bought some flats for work, which so far have helped with my calves not being as tight.

I'm attempting to get on a better sleep schedule as well. I find that if I get to bed before 12 and then get up at 5, I can get my workout in; however, I need to get more rest. Soon I'll be on two volleyball leagues again and training for my half marathon. I want to do the Rock 'N Roll St. Louis Marathon this fall. Hopefully having a clean apartment will allow for me to do more with my life other than always organizing and cleaning. I'd really like to get a bike or learn how to roller blade. Summer is coming up and I want a hobby that will help me stay active (other than running and working out).

D15 - 4HB

	MEASUREMENTS (7:05 AM)	MEASUREMENTS (9:30 PM)
TEMP	97.6	98.9
WEIGHT	122.8	124.0
BMI	21.8	22.0
FAT	31.1%	31.0%
MUSCLE	28.6%	28.9%
RM kcal	1241	1246
BODY AGE	27	28
VISCERAL	4	4
BLOOD PRESSURE	107/61 81	108/61 81

For lunch I had a Chipotle burrito bowl with chicken, two types of beans instead of rice, medium salsa and guac. For dinner I had Cajun spiced chicken (3 strips), carrots and a protein shake.

For my workout (and this is what I mean by more effort):

Warmup:
1/2 mile in 5:43

3 x 5 35 pound kettle deadlifts
3 x 5 35 pound kettle posterior pops
3 x 10 35 pound kettle swings

As many rounds as I could do, in 20 minutes of:
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 sit-ups

I completed 8 rounds with 55 pounds assisted on the pull ups, and the last 5 rounds I completed the pull ups with 60 pounds assisted. In 20:13.1 I completed 13 rounds. This was my first time doing a workout like this in a while and it felt GREAT!

I followed this workout by a long set of stretching, about 20 minutes of just stretching. When I got home, I did 40 minutes of yoga. I've noticed a lot of my muscles are really tight and since I'm going to be running the half in 7 weeks, I need to get loose.

I also have not been consistently taking my pills, mostly because I forget to take my pills to work. I think I need to start taking bags of the vitamins and leaving them at work instead of potentially forgetting them at home. I hopefully will be able to get up earlier and get into a routine in which I take my measurements, eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking, take my vitamins, and do my yoga. After all of that, I can hopefully get in the shower and to work on time. I think the lack of thermogenics, forgetting my vitamins, not including the cayenne in the eggs, and not consistently working out, is really causing me to fail. I need to get into gear and knock out the 10 pounds I set to lose before hand. The closest I've gotten was 119 and that was after a night out. I know it's possible, I just need to work harder.

D14 - 4HB

	MEASUREMENTS (9:26 AM)	MEASUREMENTS (TIME NOT LOGGED)
TEMP	96.1 AFTER WATER	98.8
WEIGHT	124.2	125
BMI	22.0	21.1
FAT	29.6%	30.5%
MUSCLE	30%	29.4%
RM kcal	1250	1252
BODY AGE	27	28
VISCERAL	4	4
BLOOD PRESSURE	105/67 70	98/60 89

Saturday night consisted of boneless buffalo wings for dinner at BWW, which did not sit well with my stomach. Saturday and Sunday were lazy days and I can tell by the way I feel that I just need to get back on track.