Cleaning Cheerios

Little Beast loves Cheerios. He's constantly eating them, throwing them on the floor and feeding them to the dogs. We got him The First Years Snack Bowl which is a cup with a membrane so that he has to reach his little fingers in to grab his snacks. He loves the cup so much Hubby calls it his Little Jon cup - don't ask. Anyways, what's the point of all this? The point is that I don't like cleaning, unless of course it's a squat clean!

Love this shirt!

Hell Yea!

While I'm still working on technique, squat cleans are great. The last CrossFit class I went to, I did 5 rounds of 20 squat cleans and boy was I sore! The low squats are what gets you. It's tough to get the technique down - I worked on it more with Trainer last night and hope to get it soon. Today's CrossFit WOD is - 

Strength
Push Press 5x5

Conditioning
for time 
1k row
30 burpee box jumps
1k row

30 burpees followed by box jumps, I just couldn't resist! I told Hubby I want to do the WOD too. So tonight after his class, we'll hand off Little Beast so that I can go to the next class. Am I excited? Hell yea, it's a lifestyle...biiitccch. Am I nervous? A little. Am I motivated? Yes, I search crossfit women on Pinterest at random points throughout the day to get me motivated. It works!

Now on to Cheerios. They are yummy and according to the commercials, good for your heart but what I don't get is all the negativity around the new commercial. 

So what, there's a white mom, a black dad and a biracial daughter. The first thing I said when I saw that commercial was that the daughter was really cute. I didn't comment on the fact that she's biracial. I didn't even think about it. What difference does it make? I guess it really upsets me that in 2013, people are still causing a fuss over biracial kids. I'm Indian, Hubby's Italian and guess what, that makes our little man, 100% biracial. But also 100% American. Look around you. You'll see interracial couples everywhere. And what do interracial couples make? Biracial babies. What's wrong with that? We live in America. The beauty of our nation is the fact that we are so racially diverse. If anything, this commercial is American and that's perfectly fine with me. I know this isn't fitness related at all but it is close to my heart and I just had to say something. Cheerios, you're awesome in my book. 

50% Indian, 50% Italian
100% American

Modified

You may have noticed fewer posts dedicated solely to running. It's because I have modified my fitness goals. As mentioned in previous posts, I joined the gym and have a Trainer. Years ago, I never would have done that. I owe my evolving fitness goals to running. Running has given me the confidence that I needed to try other things. When I started running, I didn't like it one bit. The more I did it, the more I enjoyed it and the farther I ran. The farther I ran, the more confidence I got. Yeah I can run 6 miles, what now biatttchh?

So back to fitness goals. When I decided I wanted to be a runner, I thought hey I'll lose a little weight. To be honest, I haven't lost any weight running. My body also hasn't drastically changed since I started running. I'm okay with that, I didn't really expect a big change to begin with. I'm happy to be part of the running community, happy to have built my endurance and impressed with the confidence I gained running. But I want more. I want to be strong. I've always been skinny fat. Not very skinny but certainly not fat. I guess you could describe me as mushy. My mushiness increased after having Little Beast and I'm sick of it. I don't much care about weight. I'd be perfectly okay with staying the same weight but I want strong arms, legs and a strong core. It's because of these new fitness goals, that I started having my Trainer do Crossfit workouts with me. I'm not at a CrossFit Box yet but I'm working on getting there. I admire the crazy workouts crossfitters do and how much strength they have. I love the feeling of pride you have after an unbelievably exhausting workout.

That said, you can't just jump into CrossFit. Well I can't at least. The WOD (Workout of the Day for you not crossfitters) the other day was the following: Run 1 mile, 100 pushups, 200 situps, 300 squats, Run 1 mile. Seriously? That is insane! Obviously no one can jump right into that so workouts are modified according to your ability. My Trainer does CrossFit and is aware of my desire to try it so we do modified CrossFit workouts 3 times a week. Along with that, I plan on running 2 days a week so my running schedule is modified as well. My next 5K is on May 19 so I have been working on my 5K time and putting long runs on the backburner for now. After the 5K is complete, I will go back to long runs on Sundays. I'm actually looking forward to it. Nothing beats the feeling after a long run!

This was my workout yesterday -

Jump rope - 60 seconds
Medicine ball clean (crossfit lift) - 10
Hand release push ups - 10
One hand 15 pound cleans - 10 each side
Mountain climbers - 60 seconds
Box jumps - 15

Total sets - 3

It was insane. I was pouring sweat. And I was really proud of myself for completing it! Hubby showed me how to do a box jump recently and it was really tough for me. You'd never think it was that hard. Well yesterday I did so much better! That was until Hubby and Little Beast came to the gym and I saw them. I nearly fell off the box! Ha! Leave it to me to be clumsy when people are looking at me.

After yesterday's workout, Hubby took my before pic. I am not publishing yet but I will take another one after my 24 gym sessions are up - roughly the end of June. Then I will take one after 2 months at a CrossFit Box. Whether I see a difference or not, I know I am getting stronger and that matters more!

Because working out is only part of the puzzle, I have started eating better as well. I have to say it is a slow process. It's tough when you have a long commute, get hungry the second you get home and have tons of snacks in the house for your toddler. But I'm eating more frequently and eating healthier and once I figure all that out, I'll post my daily meals for you all. Right now, I'm not where I want to be yet - working out is one thing, eating healthy is much harder! I love pizza. And I love cupcakes. I am substituting for eggs, chicken  and rice cakes with almond butter. Don't get me wrong, I'm not off pizza completely and I'll never be but I am working on having only 1 cheat day instead of 7!

Until my next crazy workout,
Renita