I.N.T.E.G.R.I.T.Y that's a Integrity

Let's play a game. If you grew up in the 90's, you'll know the answer to this. The artist who sang U.N.I.T.Y that's a Unity. Do do do do do do do du du du du do do do. Who is Queen Latifah? That's right! 90's musicians for $100 Alex. Okay let's move on.

Integrity is important in work, in your personal life and for working out. You can't cheat yourself and expect to see results. Let's take CrossFit as an example. Surprised? Yea I know I have OCD - Obsessive CrossFit Disorder. Anyways, in CrossFit, you're constantly counting - counting your rounds, counting your reps and counting how much you lift. It's easy to forget where you are in a WOD. In that case, I normally back track to where I remember leaving off and start from there. That means I occasionally do more than I need to. I'd rather that than cheat. But I have seen people who say Time before they complete a workout and I honestly have no idea why someone would do that. Are they really winning? Though we compete in time, the real competition is with yourself. I don't want to be last, but I'm completely okay with not being first. My focus is on doing the WOD properly. If that means I'm slower when it comes to time, I'm okay with that. The few times I actually did the WOD quickly, I was concerned I cheated, either I scaled too much or I miscounted. Learning how to scale workouts for yourself takes time and I have learned not to think I cheated because I have to scale some WODs. That said, I am a person of integrity and that's why I think this way. Those who cheat, need to realize they are just cheating themselves. Now that I am beginning to sound like my mother, I'll stop.

Yesterday's strength element was back squats. I haven't done back squats since my last day with Trainer and I wasn't able to beat my 1 rep max of 125. Well, yesterday, we were doing 5 reps so my max was 85. And that was extremely tough for me. Hubby mentioned the other day I'm quad dominant and I'm beginning to realize I am. Wall balls leave me sore for days because of my weak hamstrings. I also can front squat 90 pounds. Since front squats require more quad strength, that completely makes sense. Now that I've realized my weakness, I'm going to work on building my hamstring strength. This article details exercises that help weak hamstrings.

Today marks the completion of Week 1 of the Paleo Challenge and I am happy to report that I have lost 4 pounds! You all know my journey is not about weight loss and that's not the reason for participating in the challenge but it is really nice to see the added benefits of eating clean.