Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

I was so tempted to buy these Trick or Treat socks for CF today but I decided against them and chose a pair I'd use more. Bad move. A fellow CFer rocked her Zombie Killa socks today and I was jelly. Next time, I'll follow through.

Today was the first day I went to CrossFit in 6 days. Hubby and I recently bought a rack for the house so now I can do the WOD at home. Woohoo! No more excuses. I worked on back squats, push
press and kipping on Tuesday. Today, the WOD was Front squats (5X3), and then 5 rounds of 15 KB swings, 20 push ups and 25 air squats. I maxed out at 80 lbs for the front squats. I then did the WOD as prescribed. Yes you heard me, as prescribed. I used a 35 lb KB for the swings. I've been using that kettlebell lately so it didn't feel too bad. The push ups killed me though. I suck at push ups. It's next on my list to work on. Well maybe after double unders.

After class, I worked on kipping again and Coach said my kip is good and that I should focus on strength now to be able to pull myself up. He told me to do ring rows and lat pull downs (think that's what they are called) in order to build strength. He also, get this kids, told someone else to look at the way I kip as an example. Totally not kidding. I was in shock. I actually did something right! I came home and read an article on how to quickly build lat strength and found this. I like the Grease the Groove idea for every time you walk in a doorway. We have a pull up bar that I can put up in the bathroom but leaving the bathroom door open 24/7, um that's not happening. I will go out to the garage everyday and work on other exercises to build strength though.

So while I don't have an unassisted kipping pull up yet, I'm well on my way. I'll be back for the crazy Friday Hell WOD tomorrow.

Tonight, it's on like donkey kong. Is that my costume? No and I have no idea why I went back to 1989. Anyways, Little Beast is a boxer and has a parade at daycare this evening. I will update this post with pics later. Yesterday, we carved our pumpkins.

Yea right, these aren't ours! We're not that obsessed. Okay maybe we are.

Our Pumpkin Family :)

Me Against Myself

So this little Miss made it to CrossFit again this morning. I had to go for the 7:30 am class because I had a meeting at 9 am. My hands were blistered out from yesterday's kipping session and this was today's WOD:

10/24 WOD aka Not Good for Blisters

I can't remember the last time I did Squat Cleans. Maybe never? I didn't have anything to work towards but I ended up finishing at 70 lbs. I tried to clean 75 but I'm not there yet. I did however use 55 lbs for the Shoulder to Overhead first two rounds of the WOD. I had to go down to 45 lbs because I was having trouble cleaning 55 lbs towards the end. The worst part of the workout was gripping the Kettlebell for KB swings. OMFG did that hurt! I moved up to a 35lb KB recently and usually have no problem with it. I mean I struggle but it's a good struggle. Today however, it was a bad struggle. My hands were fighting me. My blisters burned. I just wanted to throw the KB down (thankfully I didn't, I'm clumsy as hell and would have probably thrown it on my foot!) and look at my poor gross hand. But I fought the pain and kept on moving. I finished in 15:24 and I was last. I was also lifting the least, at least with regard to Shoulder to Overhead.

When you look around you and you see people lifting much more than you, it's motivating and discouraging all at the same time. I was using the least amount of weight for squat cleans. But when you really think about it, you can only compare yourself to yourself. I am stronger than I was yesterday. A couple posts ago, I was complaining about only push pressing (what I usually choose for Shoulder to Overhead) 35lbs. The fact that I was push pressing 55 lbs today is awesome. Sure I wish I could do as much as some of the girls in my class but I have to be proud of where I am and how far I have come. Eventually I'll lift more.

I'm home again tomorrow and will probably be going for Friday's Hell WOD. I am actually going to pick up some workout gloves tonight so that I can save my hands a little tomorrow.

Ewwwk! Yeaaahh Go me!

Are You Motivated by Workout Gear?

Cause I sure am! There are adorable shirts out there and who doesn't like yoga pants and tights! I'm a frequenter of AMRAP Style and have bought a number of things she puts together. My most recent purchase was Nike Twisted Running Crops. Cute huh? I absolutely cannot wait to wear them, which means I will be going to CrossFit the day they arrive. If that isn't motivating, I don't know what is!

Let's talk about today's WOD -

My 1 rep max for deadlifts is 145lb. Today I did 135lbs for the 5X3 so my 1 rep max should be about 155-160. I am still using a 35 lb bar for power snatches and I really got a chance to work on my form today. Coach says I'm getting better, it's just going to take a lot of practice. I can't wait for the day that I can do a 65 lb snatch. I did 5 rounds and 12 for the WOD and it took me 3 minutes and 26 seconds for the 300 regular jump ropes. I really need to focus on learning how to do double unders. That's next on my list after kipping pull ups.

Speaking of kipping, I stayed after again today to work on it. I ended up losing the band and just worked on my kip and I came about 4 inches from the bar. I'm close. It will happen by the end of November. That's my goal. 

I haven't been feeling that great so I'm happy I pushed myself to go to CrossFit today. Since workout gear is a huge motivator for me, I wore a pair of my new CF socks. You like?

One Love bitchess!

Where I Get My Inspiration

It's easy to get caught up in excuses. My favorite is when people without kids and a full time job say they have no time. Really? After I had Little Beast, my excuse was - I'm a mom now, I can't do that. Or I should accept that I won't have time to work out because I'm a mom. Of course I later realized that was complete and utter bullshit. You make time. No matter where you are in your life, you make time to do the things you want to do.

In a previous post, I mentioned one of my fellow moms at CrossFit. She's extremely strong, looks a lot younger than she is and has two children. When I first saw her, I thought she was single without kids and that's why she had the time to stay in such great shape. Boy was I wrong! A couple days ago, I ran into another fit momma again with two children and the time to work out. When you see people like that, people who have time constraints and full lives yet still manage to take care of themselves, you have inspiration. I truly admire the other women I CrossFit with.

One of the other CF moms is 6 months pregnant and still kicking ass at CrossFit. Words cannot describe how much credit I give her. Yet another one had a baby 4 months ago and is in great shape. The point of all these stories is that when you find yourself coming up with excuses, think of other people in the same or worse situations and continue to push. That's where you'll get your motivation. It's certainly where I get mine.

I've been working from home a couple days this weekend and managed to go to CrossFit yesterday and the day before. I'm taking a rest day today and plan on going back for tomorrow's Hell WOD. My recent goal is a non banded kipping pull up and I have a ways to go. I've gone from 3 bands to 1 and I have been working on getting the motion down for the kip. I still need to build some strength though to be able to pull myself up. It will happen. And when it does, I'm going to thank all my CF chicas for motivating me.

TGIF

Since Hubby's still on furlough (don't get me stahted - yes I said stahted. Love Boston accents. When I lived in Bean Town, a friend of mine once said Renita get in the cah. The what? The cah. What? Come on get in the cah so we can get to the pahty. That really happened. After he picked me up off the floor, I was dying laughing, we made it to the party. Long story short - not really sorry - I love Boston and I love Boston accents.

Let's start over. Since Hubby's on furlough, I convinced him to go to CrossFit for the Friday Hell WOD. Today's WOD was:

100 ft walking lunge (45/25lb overhead)
30 Box Jumps (24/20)
20 Wall balls (20/14)
10 HSPU

I did the workout as prescribed except for hand stand push ups in 34:10. I can't get them yet so I do them off the box. One day. I just love Fridays. The feeling you get after you complete an insanely tough workout is amazing. There's just something about pushing your body to its limits and not giving up. After class, I worked on kipping pull ups. Yes I did more. I figured out the swinging part but haven't managed to pull myself up yet. It will happen. That's my next goal. One thing at a time.

Socks. You know those adorable socks all the extremely fit CF chicks wear. Love. When I'm not dreaming about Indian designer dresses, I'm dreaming about socks. I seriously need to start getting more creative with my dreams. Anyways, a friend of mine told me about SoxBox. Dude Love. No not dude love but dude, I love. I just bought 3.

I realized I've never posted a pic of me doing anything workout-esque, so you may be wondering if in fact I do what I say I do. Here's some proof (these pics weren't from today's WOD btw).

Me doing a Box Jump

Me scared doing a Box Jump

Exhausted Me!

I'm not the greatest but I try my hardest and that's what matters, right? Right.

6 Months Later

As of this morning, the Paleo Challenge is officially over. I just rewarded myself with four cookies. Oops. Anyways, this month also marks 6 months of consistently working out so guess what, I have updated pictures. First things first, let's talk Benchmarking WOD on day 1 of the Paleo Challenge and how I did earlier today.

Front squat 7X1
    Pre Challenge: 90 lbs
    Post Challenge: 95 lbs

Ring Rows - Consecutive
    Pre Challenge: 13
    Post Challenge: 20

15 min AMRAP - 400 m run, 15 KB swings, 15 box jumps
    Pre Challenge: 3 rounds, 400m run, 15 kb, 6 box jumps
    Post Challenge: 4 rounds

Front squats kicked my ass today. My form was off and I had trouble focusing. I just didn't have the I'm going to kick ass mentality. Hard to describe. Anyways I barely did 95 lbs and Coach even said it was the worst front squat he's ever seen. Ahkk! So yea ring rows, I did pretty well. I think I could have done a couple more but I stopped at 20. And then the 15 min AMRAP, I started that with the kick ass mentality. I knew what I did last time around and wanted to finish 4 complete rounds this time..and I did! Woohoo! So yea, while I did better all around, I definitely think I have more in me. I'm excited for the next challenge and the next time we do this particular WOD. 

Picture update. Keep in mind that this is roughly 6 months of working out, I took the two previous pictures towards the end of the month and took this one early in the month. I also didn't fully commit to the Paleo challenge. I was really good for a month and slacked a bit these past couple of weeks. That being said, you can still see a difference. See for yourself.

So can you see a difference? Since July, I have lost about 6 pounds. I also run faster now. I avoid adding sugar to anything but yes, I eat a cookie here and there. I'm human and I like it. 

This challenge has made me realize that I want to focus more on strength building now. I want a 100+ front squat and to build my core. I want to learn how to kip and stop using bands to do pull ups. I want to do a hand stand push up. 

Here's to new goals and making gains. I've come a long way and I'm definitely not done yet. :)

The End is Near

Unfortunately, I'm not referring to the Government Shutdown, I'm referring to the Paleo Challenge! Woohoo, it's almost over!

Today's the last day of eating Paleo and then tomorrow is the benchmarking WOD to see how I have improved since the challenge started. I was pretty strict with eating paleo for the first month of the challenge and have slacked the past couple weeks. I've still lost 6 pounds and discovered a few things. My general stance on eating 100% Paleo after the challenge is that it's a bit stressful and expensive. Hear me out. The stressful part is figuring out a meal that Hubby and Little Beast will eat and then modifying it to be 100% Paleo for me. That's tough. Don't get me wrong, it's doable but it's a lot of my time and energy focused on eating and I'd rather just eat things in moderation and focus on generally eating meats, fruits and veggies. Also the whole grass fed thing, while I love it, it does increase our grocery budget by round $50 a week and some weeks, that's not feasible. I will make an effort to buy grass fed first but I figure grain fed meat is better than pasta! Post challenge, I'm going for 80/20 since it's extremely feasible and allows me to enjoy cheat meals here and there. I will continue to avoid bread and grains since they make me feel icky and I'm sticking with almond milk. Yum!

For Life Biiiitttchhh!

Let's talk about things non paleo, CrossFit and running. Seriously who am I? Anyways, my cuzzo's wedding is in December in Jamaica and no it's not a destination wedding. The lucky bastard lives there. So Hubby, Little Beast and the rest of the nutty clan are all set to go. Except it's an Indian wedding (woohoo!) and figuring out outfits is like a one night stand - both require tons of time and analysis for just one night. This past weekend I went to the Indian Designer mall down the street and I saw the most beautiful outfit I have ever seen - slight exaggeration but it was actually very nice! I'm all about Indian fusion and it was an actual dress with indian touches. Love. Like a lot. I fell in love. It's unhealthy. I have been dreaming about the dress. Hubby's jelly. Buy it? Yea right, it's $1200 which is like $1000 over my budget. So now I'm trying to get a knock off made. #IndianGirlProblems. I hate hash tags yet I use them. Sad. Okay I'm done here. Let's move on.

Guess what? They finally decided to purchase almond milk for the work fridge! When I saw it yesterday, I was ecstatic. I actually ran to the receptionist and gave her a high five!

I can't draw

While I'm excited today is the last official day of the paleo challenge, one huge benefit is that I stopped adding sugar to everything. My morning coffee used to contain around 203 teaspoons of sugar. If I made pasta sauce, I'd add sugar. Now I drink my coffee black or with almond milk. I try to use raw honey instead of sugar or in the case of pasta sauce, I add carrots to give it some sweetness. Yum-o! Err forgot for a second that I'm not Rachel Ray. Thank God.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's benchmarking WOD to see how I improved and will keep you all posted. I'm also due for some more "during" pics so I'll take a couple and post those as well. Stay Classy.

New Found Motivation

As you all know, I have periods where I am completely on track with everything - eating and working out and then I have moments where I completely fall off the truck, track, what's that saying? This past weekend was the CrossFit Open and even though Hubby and I weren't competing, we took Little Beast to go cheer on our fellow box members. Since the Paleo challenge is still going on, I made Pumpkin Swirl Brownies. Dude, they were awesome. I had to tell Hubby not to eat them several times before we went! PaleOMG's Juli created yet another masterpiece. If you haven't checked out our blog, check it out, she's got a great personality and is a great cook! 

So CrossFit Open this weekend, all I have to say is that I was truly inspired. Four girls from my box participated and each one inspired me with her strength and determination. They pushed until they couldn't push anymore. It was amazing to see. The guys kicked ass as well and I was proud of how well our box did. It gave me the motivation I needed to run the next day despite my half marathon being cancelled. I ended up running 10 miles yesterday and felt fantastic after it. Last time I ran 10, I was sore for days. This time I feel a lot better. I never thought I'd be able to run 5 miles, let alone 10!

I am going to switch focus now. I will continue to run 5Ks and will eventually run a half marathon but I want to get better at back squats, double unders, wall balls and pull ups. I want to focus on increasing strength and getting better with the barbell. As I mentioned in my About Me section, my fitness goals are constantly evolving and right now I want to focus on strength. I'll still run but instead of focusing on long distance runs, I want to focus on a faster 5K.

I'm hoping to one day compete in a CrossFit Open but I have a ways to go. The scaled WOD at the competition this past weekend would have been really tough for me. I'll get there, one day.

Doomsday Prepping

Hubby's a huge fan of Doomday Preppers and now Doomsday Castle (which I like as well). Some of the preppers are glorified hoarders and just plain crazy while other preppers are prepping for economic collapse. Could it happen? I used to laugh it off but these days, I think it could. We're in debt. The government can't make a decision for the life of them. They are playing games and wasting time. Currently there's a furlough which means government employees are forced to stay home without pay. Does that sound like a flourishing economy?

While I'm not about to go buy a bunker and live on a farm, I am seriously considering how much I value things. We value money. We all work hard for money. But eventually if the dollar means nothing, what are we working for?

I was extremely lucky that my parents paid my college tuition. This allowed me to get out of college without debt and with one foot forward. But these days, college tuition is higher and salaries haven't really increased so how are people supposed to pay off their college debt? Grants and scholarships are a thing of the past. So you have to wonder if a college education will be obtainable for the vast majority of Americans. If not, what's going to happen to the future of our country? To add fuel to fire, did you know that it costs the same to go to Harvard for 4 years and to be imprisoned in NY for one year? I kid you not. See this article. Why we spend so much money on convicts is beyond me. Instead, we should spend money on grants for smart children that don't have the means to pay for college. Simply put - we're doing it wrong.

I'm not trying to be depressing just trying to highlight the fact that we all really need to think about what matters most - family, friends, etc and worry less about "getting ahead". While important, money comes and goes and sometimes, it's not in your control.

There's a Hindu saying (I apologize if I got this wrong, my Mom mentioned it to me the other day) that Goddess Laxmi, who is the goddess of wealth, is fickle and will leave you but Goddess Saraswati, the goddess of Knowledge, will never leave you once she is with you. Knowledge is more important than wealth. I remind myself of this daily to not get hung up on stressing about money. When things are out of your control, you can't really stress them.

My first ever half marathon is scheduled for this weekend. I just received notice that if the shutdown is still in effect Friday, that the half marathon is cancelled since it's at a National Park. So not only does the shutdown affect the many government employees, Hubby included, that are not getting paid, it also affects other more fun aspects of our lives.

Here's to hoping the furlough stops soon.