Sometimes Life Comes First

It's been a long while. A LONG while. I've missed you guys, terribly. But with prepping for vacation, vacation itself, Hubby being in he ER after vacation with a stomach virus and everyone generally not feeling well, life's been busy. Slowly things are going back to normal and I am grateful for that. I wish you all Happy Holidays! Little Beast enjoyed opening his presents yesterday, one after the other. He crawled though the 6 foot Tunnel his uncle bought him, then painted on the Easel Santa got for him and enjoyed playing with his train set. I think I enjoyed it a bit more though. Trains are fun.

My Little Artist

Busy Playing with his Train

Santa decided to spoil Mommy as well, I got the lifting shoes I wanted! I am so excited to break them out for CrossFit.

Speaking of CrossFit, I haven't been since before vacation and I am dying to go back. In addition to all that's going on, my dad had foot surgery during Thanksgiving so I have been helping my Mom with his care. That leaves even less time in the day. It's fine. Life comes first sometimes. When things slow down, I'll return to CrossFit, I'm hoping next week or this weekend! 

So the million dollar question. Not million dollars. Just a question. I exaggerate. Anyways, did you see the Crock Pot in the back of the picture of Little Beast playing with his train set? Santa gave that to me as well! Am I excited? Hell yes! Do you know my love of crock pots? It's a love based on convenience and quality. Crock Pot cooking is easy, stress free and pretty much my favorite way to cook. Since my old one is on it's way out, it was the perfect present. It also has a timer so I can set it in the morning before work and come home to dinner. Ah the life. 

Aside from my family life and working out, I have some blog related news. I am still working on  my new site - it's a slow process. While doing so, I am also writing articles for mommyhotspot.com. Check out my latest article on Sports Bra Reviews. 

Hope you and yours enjoy the holidays! 

Love to Lift

This past Saturday was the Lift-a-thon in honor of our friend Val's family who lost everything in the Philippine Typhoon. I am proud to say that our box raised $2,000 in a matter of 3 hours. We came really together and pitched in. Love my CF fams.

Hubby and I both participated in the Lift-a-Thon. Hubby PR'd on both his bench press and deadlift. Because I'm a proud wife, here's a video of him deadlifting 275. He makes it look easy. I know he has a 300 lb deadlift in him.



Now after you see Hubby's perfect form, check me out. Awkward and funny - all part of my charm. But whatever I PR'd at 180 lbs!



The rest of Saturday was good. Friends came over and brought Little Beast a tool bench for his birthday. He will be 2 this Friday. I honestly can't believe it's been 2 years already. He spent the entire day playing with his tools. Gotta love new toys!

Since this week is an easy week, work wise, I am planning on going to CF at least 3 times this week. I have been going as much as possible lately and I definitely feel stronger. I'm hoping to stay after class and work on kipping either Tuesday or Wednesday. Thanksgiving day I will need to get a run in. We have a 5K coming up on December 8 and I haven't run since I did 10 miles over a month ago. So it's time to get back on track. My goal for the 5K is under 26 minutes.

After the 5K, we will be going to Jamaica for my cousin's wedding. I am looking forward to seeing my family, partying at the wedding AND of course jerk chicken. Y'all don't know my love of Jamaican Jerk Chicken. It's real. I love me some jerk. Add beef patties to that and I'm in heaven. I swear I'm going to come back at least 5 pounds heavier. Oh well, stay calm and eat on vacation...biiiitch. :)

I Can't Clean

Seriously I can't. I have a cleaning lady. She comes every other week and turns my messy house spotless. With Little Beast and the Chubbies, it is impossible to have a spotless house all the time. Lie. With me, it's impossible to have a spotless house all the time. I don't enjoy cleaning and I'm not very good at it. Yes I'm a wife and mom. I still can't clean. Sue me. Actually please don't, I spend all my money on my cleaning lady.

Speaking of cleaning, I can't clean very well at CrossFit either. Two days ago, lunges were part of the WOD and the RX was 95 lbs for girls. I did 65. And after the 3rd round (there were 5), I couldn't even clean 65. The Coach had to give me the bar so I could do lunges and said we'll work on cleans another day. Fast forward to today and since it was free skill work day, I worked on cleans. I practiced my form with the 35 lb bar and then practiced more with 55 lbs. It felt easy. I'm pretty sure I can clean 75 lbs now and with practice, I should be able to power clean more so that I can eventually RX something. I want to be an RX girl.

Once I can do that, I will have truly earned this t-shirt and you better believe I will buy it.

Love this shirt!

This Saturday our box is doing a Lift-a-Thon for one of our members that has family in the Philippines that lost everything in the Typhoon. We basically get to pick a lift (our max) and we get 3 tries to get to our max. Then you either have sponsors or pay up to 10 cents a pound depending on how much you lift. I am going for a 180 lb deadlift. Last week my 1 rep max was 165. I'm really hoping to PR and since the more I lift, the more I give, my motivation is pretty high. I'll keep y'all posted. Apparently I was from the South in my previous life. Y'all!

I'm working on some changes to my blog so you may be redirected to another site in the next couple of weeks. Still me, don't be alarmed. I hope you continue to read my endless babble and continue on this journey with me. It'll be fun...ny, I promise.

CrossFit: Church, Cult or Community?

I've been home the past 3 days, either working from home or taking time off, and I have managed to go to CrossFit all 3 of those days. I've had great workouts and a not so great workout. I've seen my friends, made plans and talked about about fitness goals. I've come home tired, sometimes discouraged, sometimes amped and I always look forward to the next day. Currently my box is planning a Lift-a-Thon for a fellow member who's family lost everything they had in the Philippines. We help each other out, we cheer each other on and we're there for each other when needed. We're family. 

You know my addiction to Google. While I was thinking about this earlier, I googled CrossFit Church to see what came up. I found a blog post from a girl that described what's CrossFit is all about BUT she had never been to CrossFit. No bueno. I stopped reading. So here's my thoughts on whether CrossFit is like Church, a Cult or Community. 

Wikipedia. My other favorite. Yes I'm on the internet a lot. Can't help it. Work sucks sometimes. I love the squirrel. Anyways, Wikipedia defines Church as: A Christian Place of Worship. Since CrossFit is neither religious nor a place of worship, I think it's safe to say that comparison is out. We do have events and bring baked goods (ie the cupcakes I brought to the Snatch Clinic) but we're not worshipping anything, except for the person that recently got a movement we haven't yet, in my case my nemesis Kipping Pull ups! So CrossFit and Church, no. Let's talk Cult. According to my friend Wiki, a Cult is a group of people who workship a diety. Greg Glassman (founder of CrossFit) is a pretty cool guy but we don't sit around in a circle sacrificing our muscles to him, well I guess that's debatable. Anyways Cult has a negative connotation and since CrossFit is anything but, we'll move on. Community, according to Wiki is, a small social unit of any size that shares common values. Ding Ding Ding! That's spot on. Everyday I'm at CrossFit, I'm working to attain my fitness goals. I'm talking about my goals, working towards them and cheering people on when they attain theirs. That's community. I genuinely care about the people at my Box and want them to succeed. We see each other covered in sweat with crazy blisters on our hands and yet we all go back for more. CrossFit is a Community and I am very thankful I am part of it.

So for all of you out there who have googled something or the other and have come across this post - Go out there and sign up for a class. And no, I'm not getting any kickbacks for saying that. Just go out there and try a CrossFit class and you'll see what I'm talking about. 

Back to me! Really I am not that self absorbed.  Okay maybe I am. I PR'd on deadlifts today at 165lbs! Wohoo! This is the week we are all discovering our 1 rep maxes so I was pretty happy with my deadlift. I wasn't happy yesterday with my shoulder press 1 rep max of 55. I had 55 back in July and seem to have plateaued. You win some, you lose some. Now that I know my 1 rep maxes, I know what I need to work on. This handy dandy website has been a tremendous help for me with regard to goal setting. 

I'm curious. Have you done CrossFit? What are your thoughts? 

Me vs Kipping

Life has drastically changed (little exaggeration here) since we bought a squat rack for our garage. Hubby and I have been working on our lifts and kips ever since he and Little Beast assembled the rack. Cute huh? Check them out!

Love my men <3 td="">

Speaking of kips, I am still not there. I have managed the swinging part but don't have the strength to pull myself up. After working on them last night, I realized I'm probably doing something wrong so I googled help with kipping and came across this blog. She's awesome. I have already subscribed to her blog. Anywho, the blog post referred me to Jason Khalipa's tutorial on kipping pull ups. So I watch the tutorial with Mr. and Mrs. Khalipa and after thinking about how cute they are, I realized that I am not bringing my knees up to my chest. I forwarded the video along to Hubby and we have big plans to bring the laptop to the garage with us when we work out. Let's see how that goes. We already have Little Beast using the PVC pipe to practice his version of overhead squats. Yea, that's how we roll.

Today's Friday and usually my Fridays start with the Hell WOD at CF. Unfortunately, I had to come into the office today so I couldn't go to CrossFit. Hubby and I are planning to work on deadlifts tonight in the garage. Last time I deadlifted 135 lbs for a 5X3 so I'm thinking my max is 155-160 lbs. I have no clue how all that math works. What you can lift 5X3 should be 85% of your 1 rep max so that would make my 1 rep max around 160 lbs. Yes I just busted out the calculator. We'll see how I do tonight.

Last night I worked on back squats and did 5X5 with 75lbs. I'm assuming that my 1 rep max is around 100 lbs there. I'm slowly getting stronger. It's tough because in the beginning, you make gains very quickly but now I feel like I am plateauing. It just gives me more motivation to keep working at it though.

Recently I've run into people who have asked me what I've been doing to lose weight. While I'm only 10 lbs lighter than I was last year at this time, my body has definitely changed. I always smile and say CrossFit. Some people know what I'm talking about and some don't. To those that don't, I translate into I lift heavy...hey, it is heavy. Maybe not as heavy as others but this is heavy for me! I'm proud of how far I've come and happy to inspire others to make changes as well.

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!