where did 2017 go?

I spend so much time one social media these days that I never seem to get the chance to write blog entries. Life is good! Except I made the mistake of drinking a double dose of ketones at work yesterday, both of which were caffeinated so I’ve been WIDE awake since like 2am. Anyone want to join me for a run kind of awake. It’s been so long I can’t remember where I left off!

2017 has been a good one for me after a rocky start. Career realignment when I stepped down to part time at sport chek and started working with my dad. Still not entirely sure if that is going to live up to all the dreams we had for it, but it still has potential in my mind.

Got engaged to the most amazing girl 😍

Found success for myself personally with drinking ketones. 😁 I have way better and more consistent energy. 😁My brain fog is no longer a challenge I face daily. The inflammation I can physically see has improved big time, which makes me believe the systemic inflammation has improved as well. I’m in a really good mood like all the time. 😁Oh! And I’ve lost nearly 20lbs 😁 Have you heard of ketones? If not, watch this!!! Or drop me a comment or whatever.  katemcdowell.experienceketo.com

 

 

Just got back from vacationing in Florida again.  Timing and coincidence could not hav worked out better for this round! Festivus Games happened for the second time for us while we were away! At first I was bummed cause I thought we were going to have to sell our spot when we decided to go away but I was able to switch our location so we could complete in Bradenton. Then right after we finished our last WOD we jumped in the car and drove 3 hours to Orlando. Yup. Right after finishing 4 WODs. No more explanation is likely needed than getting out of the car was a stiff situation.

Any-who… made it just in time to get to the stadium for the National Women’s Soccer League championship game where Amanda’s team (Portland) won! 😁 That was our insanely crazy day and the rest of the trip was beach walks, sunshine, and just enjoying each other’s company. My mom is still not really talking to me cause I didn’t invite her to join us to watch the sunset on our last night there, but happy Kate doesn’t stress over stuff as much. As my sister said when I told her – “yeah! I totally invite my roommates on dates when me and my boyfriend!”  Well put Claire 😉

 

Life is good

Life is good.  Like, been walking around with a big smile on my face for days kinda good.  This past Saturday I asked my girl to marry me.  Like, for real.  We’ve daydreamed together about our wedding for a long time and I was ready to finally work towards making it actually happen. ❤ A friend commented on Sunday out of the blue how much he admires our relationship.  He loves how much we obviously care about each other and the respect we both share.  There was more to his little speech but my not-so-rock-solid memory has misplaced it at the moment… Anyways, he made me smile cause it’s true 🙂  We can truly be ourselves together.  A couple of geeks who do silly things and laugh non-stop.  We both could spend the whole day cuddling and watching neflix and be perfectly happy.  We like adventures together but we also like the less exciting times too! Life is good. 😀

Last weekend was a long weekend and for once we had no real plans, so what do you do when you have a whole 3 days to waste? Workout and make food!!  By Monday my pretty much everything hurt.  It was awesome!!

I’m going to talk food in a separate post, cause the workout recap is tedious and I can ramble on about food and nutrition for ages too.

Friday Sept 1 2017

HERO Friday – Brownwood Dallas 5
50 Burpees
then…
10 Wallballs
10 Shoulder to Overhead 65lbs
10 Pull-ups
10 Box Jumps
10 Sit-ups
5 Rounds
then…
800m Run
Time – 28:25 Rx

Well, this was a challenging one no question.  My cardio is horrible right now.  I’m disappointed in myself for letting it get so bad, but overall I feel better when I’m not squeezing runs in on top of my already busy life so I’ll survive I guess.  Except we’re competing in Festivus Games again in just over a month and I don’t want to totally suck.

Saturday Sept 2 2017

100 Air Squats
90 Double Unders
80 Jumping Pull-ups
70 Sit Ups
60 Push Ups
50 KB Sumo Deadlifts 32kg
40 DB Push Press 25lbs
30 Weighted DB Box Step Ups 25lbs
20 Burpees
10 Man Makers 25lbs

We did this one as a partner WOD, cause Saturday is partner WOD day.  Even split in half if was pretty rough! Can’t imagine doing it as individuals.

Sunday Sept 3 2017

1. STRENGTH – BACK SQUAT
8 Minutes to Build to a HEAVY 5 Reps 135lbs
7 Minutes to Build to a HEAVY 3 Reps 155lbs
6 Minutes to Build to a HEAVY 1 Rep 175lbs
2. OLYMPIC LIFTING – SPLIT JERK
EMOM, 12 Minutes
Complete 1 Split Jerk, adding weight each round
3. SKILLS (skipped today!)
4. CONDITIONING
800m Run
30 Cal Row
25 Burpees
20 Squat Clean 75lbs
5.BARBARA
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Air Squats
5 Rounds

Ok, I was tired today.  Friday and Saturday flattened me a little… well the legs anyways.  Got chatting and missed the skills portion which I was relatively ok with since I really didn’t feel like 55 HSPU (or going upside down at all if I’m being honest).  I kinda fluffed Barbara as well.  Still got a good workout though! 😀 Sundays are so much fun and now that hoceky is done we can actually go to them.

Monday Sept 4 2017

Partner Workout – Run together, split all others as desired
400m Run
100 Front Rack Lunges 65lbs
50 Toes to Bar
100 Double Unders
50 Calorie Row (while partner holds plank)
100 Hang Power Cleans 65lbs
50 Burpees
100 Shoulder to Overhead 65lbs
50 Deadlifts 165lbs
400m Run
Time – 41:41 Rx

HOLY CRAP!!  But I’d totally do this one again.

 

Wahls Protocol

If there’s any interest… my Wahls Diary will be on this blog: https://battleworthfighting.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/my-wahls-diary-prequel/

We survived Festivus Games his past weekend 🙂 Amanda as a competitor and myself as photographer. Still digging myself out after more than 1,500 images were captured, but I’m excited to share these soon! Only a handful of the 130 competitors were from CFC and while it was kinda nice to shoot some different people, I’m always most concerned with capturing “family”. Especially when things are crazy intense like they were at this one with 14 lanes per heat!

Now there’s a plan

Let us back-track for a moment… 5 years ago I had just moved to Waterloo.  I had been living a pretty crazy life with a long drive to and from work every day and LOTS of ball hockey. Also quite committed to the global gym scene.  I had recently started the whole Paleo routine trying to fix some health crap. Oh! And I was skinny!! Not healthy necessarily despite all my efforts, but shopping for pants mad me happy for the first time in my life. Unfortunately that was the only thing really at time, but it was pretty huge. Life in Waterloo was a real change. I was 6km from my job, with an awesome gym in between. I had so much time on my hands I didn’t really know what to do with it at first, but I figured it out. Reconnected with an old friend from work who had gotten into personal training and started lifting. You probably know that drill… Monday leg day, Tuesday back and biceps, etc.  Pretty boring stuff, but I wanted to gain some muscle. Then one day I found crossfit. It was new for me, but brought the cardio element back to my world which I had been missing (Waterloo doesn’t offer the same ball hockey opportunities Toronto did!!). It was new, and scary, and exciting… and FUN!!  Downside… I slowly started to gain weight. At first I thought, all good its muscle. And in a sense I was right! But every season I was shopping for new clothes cause the old ones didn’t fit anymore. After a while I started to freak out a bit, so I tightened up my diet (which was pretty strictly Paleo already) and worked out more. But the weight kept creeping up. Could I have been going about things all wrong?! Fast forward to today and finally realizing that crossfit and Paleo could be responsible for my weight gain!! WTF!?!? I read this a few days ago which really got the ball rolling in my mind:

paleo-made-fat-pop-tarts-got-shredded/

I felt like this guy completely understood how I’ve felt!! I mean, I have a pretty decent 6-pack that I’ve worked really hard for, but there’s this layer of body fat covering everything.  I did a bit more reading and decided it was time for a change. I had already made the decision to give up nut butters, which at least had me in the right direction, but I’m increasing my carbs as well. After 5 years of quite a low carb intake, it might be just what my body needs? Or I might get fatter. I’m really hoping option A is reality.   There’s a part 2 to this rant. With dropping the fat content, my macros were in line with what Coach Jen had recommended at my nutrition consult, but my calories were still quite low.  So I asked! Explained my frustration and what I was looking for and got another response I hadn’t been expecting!  My focus had been set on adjusting the diet component once again, but Jen’s thoughts were along a different line.  Could crossfit be to blame?  Seriously??  So now it’s a matter of trying to determine wether my super-clean eating or intense workout routine is the reason I can’t shed a few pounds.  Not binge eating, or nights of drinking, or sitting on the couch… a clean diet or exercise.  What. The. FUCK.  Jen is also looking to lean out before a very important event in June, so she is readjusting her workout routine with the same goal in mind.  “We could lift together!  Misery loves company, right?” she said haha!  Anyways, her plan involves just lifting 3 times a week and cutting the WODs to 2 per week MAX.  They are great, but they cause stress on your body (says Jen) Some people handle stress by loosing weight, some bodies go into panic mode and store everything as fat!  So… sitting on the couch might actually be a more effective way to lose weight?  I don’t know… so confused.  What I DO know is crossfit keeps me sane and happy, so I’m making some adjustment to my workout routine for now but focusing more on the nutrition part.  Last night we went to Olympic lifting class instead of the WOD for the first time in ages 🙂  It’s kinda strange how I used to feel like I was ripping myself off from the sweatfest I needed and just went through the motions of the class without much enthusiasm.  Last night was so different!  I loved it 🙂  and Coach Carson is amazing!  The crossfit side of things will benefit SO much from working with him too.  Plus if I can actually lean out a little the gymnastic parts should improve as well.

Anyways… long rant.  I have always had a goal, but now I feel like I have a plan too.  Hopefully that’s the difference this time.  To be continued…

Chaotic

This post could be a chaotic one… just saying.  I’ve got a bunch of thoughts swimming around in my head and I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to put them all down quite yet. 🙂

Tomorrow a good-sized group from CFC are starting the Whole Life Challenge.  I considered it, but A: I’ve already done it.  Twice.  B: I can think of better ways to spend money right now.  C: Although I did seriously consider it, I just couldn’t see how it would create enough of an impact to make a difference.  I eat clean.  Other than the once a month pizza night cheat meal, I’d have to give up gum and spend more $$ on clean bacon.  Just not enough of a difference to make a difference.  Anywho… I’ve decided to give up nut butter for the duration of the challenge instead.  Cause as always, I’m not happy with my body and want to find whatever is making me carry around extra fat.  I mean, I have abs!  I can see them sometimes… like when I move or whatever.  But I want to just see them.  So maybe no nut butter will help.

I’m dealing with an MS relapse this week.  Not a bad one, but still not fun and in a totally new environment makes it challenging.  My Henry’s crew new me.  They new what was normal and how to help when things were rough.  So did my CFD crew.  This is a new experience with Amanda too and I’m really doing my best to communicate things with her and help her understand.  I know how it feels to be on the other side of things too where you just want to help but you have no idea how.  I read a post yesterday (while sitting on my butt with a warm Magic Bag draped over my legs) that described very well the communication challenges.  I shared the post with Amanda cause it seemed easier than trying to interpret my own version.  The author refers to MS as her sidekick.  It’s something that has an invisible but constant impact on your physical well-being and state of mind.  Yet no matter how long you’ve been living with this sidekick, it can still be quite challenging to decide how much to keep to yourself.  It’s also challenging cause when things are my normal I have no need to share anything, but when something comes up I mentally often don’t have the space in my mind to also take into consideration how to explain what I’m dealing with.  My mind is occupied with “Just get through this.  It will pass.”  I mentioned to Amanda yesterday, it’s a battle in my mind cause there can be a fine line between I don’t want you to feel like I’m shutting you out and I don’t want to get to the point where it’s like a broken record.  This week os thankfully not too bad.  I can still crossfit (although not quite at my usual intensity but it’s something!).  Coach Jason approached me after the WOD on Tuesday where I had scaled to a 75lb bar when I really wanted to try at least 95 and commented “is that YOUR bar?! You could have done heavier! 😉 ” Oh, trust me… it’s a tough enough mental battle to convince myself to be smart.  I did call in sick to work yesterday, which is hugely odd for me, but the pain in my legs has been pretty intense.  Ever had frostbite?  Know how it feels when your frozen bits start to warm up again?  Well, that painful burning sensation has moved in from just above my knees to my toes and doesn’t seem to want to leave quite yet.  Anyways, if it interests you here’s the post I read:

https://www.msconnection.org/Blog/October-2016/An-Inconvenient-Sidekick#

I had my weekly dose of puppy therapy on Wednesday 🙂  Pluto came to work with me and kept me smiling.  He’s actually the only reason I didn’t call in sick Wednesday too, but look at this kid?  How could I pass up the chance to chill with him?

Amanda and I are starting a little side project together.  I’ve been hired to shoot at CFC (like, NOT for free!) and  my awesome girl wants to join the fun too!  When we shoot together I figured it wasn’t right to just put my signature on the photos so yesterday we came up with a name and logo 🙂  With the Open right around the corner, we’ll have plenty of opportunity to shoot too!

 

Festivus Games

🙂 First comp for Amanda and we won it! Lol who knew?!   It didn’t start amazing, but after the first WOD we were all good.

Oct 15 2016 – Festivus 2016

WOD 1   3-1-2, in 8 minutes:
Max combined load of:
3 Deadlifts-1 Hang Power Clean-2 Front Squats
Score – 205  (105K/100A)   5th

WOD 2  Hang on, jumps ahead!
Partner A hangs from pull-up bar
Partner B performs burpee box jumps
*Score is number of burpee box jumps
Score – 95 reps   1st   <- 15th overall in this one!  Like, in all affiliates who participated!

WOD 3 – Attack of the med ball snatchers 

Part A: 6 minute time cap – 20 alternating med ball sit-ups* butterfly style passing the ball over a plate between each rep. Ball must touch feet before and after each rep and cannot touch the plate when passing to your partner. THEN 4 rounds each – run 10 yards, 10 wallballs, run back and switch partners.

Part B: 4 minute MAX power snatch 45lbs

Part A Time – 4:12  1st   Part B Score – 90 reps  3rd

Floater WOD – for time, 4 minute cap
Partner A 120 single unders
Partner B 250m row
Switch
Time – 1:57   1st

Finals WOD – for time, 6 minute cap
21-15-9
Knee raises
Hand-release push-ups
Air squats
Kettlebell swings
*ALL movements must be synchronized
Time – 5:10   2nd

When the comp was all said and done we ran into a Barbell Club buddy who suggested going home and eating lots.  Actually I believe a direct quote would be “you can totally have a good cheat meal tonight!  AND desert!!” LOL!!  All I wanted was an omelet with bacon… and probably some peanut butter.

 

 

just breath… and lift!

It’s harder to put in the effort to write something when I don’t have something totally exciting to talk about.  Some random drama right now too.  I’m back on the sh*t list with my mother for not doing a good enough job of balancing my very limited “free time” between her and my girlfriend.  “This always happens when you’re with someone!  We hung out lots when you were single!”  Thanks mom.  I don’t really think the solution is I need to just be single again, so… yeah. Added pressure at work this month too cause it’s the final month of the “year” and people don’t seem to be super camera-shoppy at the moment.

Wed. Sept. 14:

BUY IN – OTM, 12 rounds:
1 Power Clean + 1 Front Squat + 1 Squat Clean
**Increase weight each successful round
55-65-75-85(2)-95(3)-105(3)-115(2)

WOD – Wednesday Chipper:

10 Rounds for time:
40 Dumbbell Thrusters  #20
40 KB Swings  #35
30 Pull-ups
30 Weighted Box Step-ups  #20
20 Ring Dips
20 DB Squat Cleans  #20

Time – 12:30

Loved the buy in 🙂  The WOD was good too although it did involve random scaling for the ring dips and some of the pull-ups.

Tues. Sept. 13:

AMRAP 20:00 Minutes:
In Teams of 3-4, Relay Style:
20/15 Calorie Bike
15- Pushups
100′ Farmers Walk (70/53)

5 Rounds.  Airdyne makes push-ups way harder than they should be :p

Mon. Sept. 12:

3 Rounds for Time:
40- Air Squats
20- Hang Power Cleans #115/#75  #65
Rest 3:00 Minutes
2 Rounds for Time
5 –Rope Climbs
100 Foot HS Walk bear crawl
1 Min L Sit (accumulate if necessary) bar hang

Scaled the seconf part of this to death.  My hip was back to its old trips and my first rope climb was detrimental.  Ah well, can’t be superhuman all the time.

---

Sunday Amanda and I went to Open Gym at CFC.  Jason runs an insane 2 hour class which we’ve yet to attempt, but cause there are 2 gyms really the other side is available for working on your own or playing with the barbell club crew.  It’s been a good chance to work on stuff for the comp we are doing together in a month and get some pointers on lifts 🙂  3 years I’ve kinda struggled with the snatch and this past Sunday I got a few tips that really made sense!  First… it’s not a deadlift.  Ditch the stripper pose and lower your BUTT!!  Second, after you jump and open your hips… pretend your arms are full of groceries and you need to close the car door… with your butt.  :p

 

Last week’s Hero WOD Friday wasn’t as awesome for me as the previous ones.  Quite probably one of my favourite days of the week, however this week I didn’t live up to my typical expectations of myself.  I’m trying to not beat myself up for it too much though considering I took the smarter route by scaling stuff cause my shoulder is still pretty unhappy with me after last Friday.  Why can’t we all be indestructible??  Anyways, I need to be smart in this respect for once in my life.  In just over a month my girl and I have our first comp together 🙂

Fri. Sept. 9:

BUY IN – Warm up:
Part A – 3 Rounds
30 sec. Skipping
10 per leg Spiderman Stretch
5 Scapula Pull-ups / 2nd round 5 Strict Pull-ups / 3rd Round 5 Kipping Pull-ups
Part B – Empty bar
100m Jog
10 Good Mornings
100m Jog
10 Back Squats
100m Jog
10 Elbow Rotations
100m Run
10 Strict Press
100m Run
10 Front Squats
100m Run
10 Stiff-legged Deadlifts

“Holbrook”

10 Rounds for time:
5 Thrusters  #65
10 Pull-ups  scaled
100m Sprint
Rest 1 minute

Time – 23:45

Only part of this I did Rx today was the sprint.  I HOOFED it!  🙂  The scaling option Coach suggested for the pull-ups involved a barbell on the rack, high enough that arms were fully extended sitting on your butt… then grab the bar an pull straight up with feet still on the floor.  Challenging, but my shoulder was down for that 🙂  Rx for the thrusters was 80lbs too, which I don’t think I’ve ever done before but would like to have at least tried.  Oh well… next time 😉  There will be a next time.  I liked this WOD and really want to give it another shot when my shoulder is happy again.

Love. Ok, all the ones in the photo have bacon, but only half did. And we crushed them all… Sounds pretty ridiculous except that skewers happened at lunch time, then we finished them off for dinner. And I still fell way short of my calories goal for the day. My chick eats twice what I do, yet I’m the one who struggles to get my giant quads into my shorts. It’s bull shit. Anyways… Skewers were so good!!

game plan

Today was so incredibly interesting!  I’ve mentioned before I find nutrition fascinating and this morning I finally got to a body composition and nutritional counseling session I’ve been trying to make happen for a few weeks.  Won’t lie and say I wasn’t nervous of what I was going to hear on the body composition side.  I fully expected to be pretty disappointed in the weight and body fat percentage stuff, but I’m pretty happy to admit I was kinda pleasantly surprised.  The weight was in line with what I had expected, but my lean muscle mass is actually pretty good!  (happy dance in my head).  Anyways… the main reason I wanted to get to see Jen was for the nutritional counseling.  My stomach has been wrecked pretty much since I took myself of the Tecfidera in January.  I’ve also been frustrated for years as weight seems to slowly creep up again even though I eat super-clean and exercise a shit-ton.  A bunch of people have given different suggestions and opinions, but I wanted to talk to someone with the educational background to support her point of view.  Plus, forever I’ve heard and suspected I’m not eating enough.  Well, great.  Need more information than that to make a change.  Not like I can add anything I want and have a positive impact… I mean, I could easily eat more bacon and a whole jar of peanut butter but pretty sure my workouts would suffer and NONE of my clothes would fit.  Anyways, for once I have a plan.  It might not be perfect, but it’s a place to start and I’m pretty excited 🙂  Excited enough that the commitment to no more Quest bars or peanut butter is one I think I can live with.  Plus I have a follow-up session in like 2 months, so I have some accountability to stick to the plan.  Good.  Game on.

Guess I should be a little more clear as to what I’m hoping to accomplish.

Goals:

• 5lbs ish increase in muscle mass
• revamp of my daily food plan:
  • 140-150g protein
  • 100g or less carbs (rest day) / 140-150g carbs (active day)
  • 75g or more fats (but less nuts!  more avo/seeds)
• timing of carbs to give my body the fuel it needs for workouts.  Sweet potatoes are BACK!!!  Woot!!
• Figure out what the hell is going on with hormones.  That’s a whole topic on its own, but not getting into details.
• Bottom line – I want to feel better, sleep better, lift heavier and look good naked.  Doesn’t seem like too much to ask lol!!

Post session with Jen, Amanda and I jumped right into the warm-up for this treat of a workout.  Had to arrive to the body comp thing with an empty stomach, and after Sharon’s bday WOD Thursday night at 5:30 I went to watch my girl play hockey and completely missed dinner too!  A tbsp. of peanut butter (tisk, tisk I know!) was my only fuel post Thursday WOD and pre Friday WOD.  Fail.  I suffered.

Fri. Aug. 5:

“Daniel”

50 Pull-ups
400m Run
21 Thrusters
800m Run
21 Thrusters
400m Run
50 Pull-ups
Time – 21:14

OMG sooooo hot out this morning!!!  The run tried to suck any remaining life out of me.  Pretty sure I actually asked Amanda if I could lay down at one point.  Otherwise pretty happy with this one 🙂  Got through 30 of the opening pull-ups before scaling and the thrusters felt pretty solid as Rx.  Wanted to continue with the pull-ups in the final batch, but even well-chalked I just couldn’t keep a grip on the bar.  Progress though!  My still-sore abs didn’t even complain all that much about all the kipping!

Thurs. Aug. 4:

AMRAP in 30:00 Minutes
3- Back Squat (Heavy)   #95
6- HSPU
9- Burpees

Result – 10 rounds + 1 back squat :p

Today should have been my rest day… except it was Coach Sharon’s birthday WOD so I really didn’t want to miss it even though it sounded pretty awful and I was already tired and sore.  I finished it.  That’s about all the credit I can give myself though.  I DID stick with the HSPU all the way through aside from 1 round where I thought regular push-ups would be a good little break but was sadly mistaken.  I don’t usually sandbag WODs, but I certainly didn’t give this one the effort it deserved.

Last note – I love my new shoes #ReebokNano5

just be :)

Once a week seems to be my max for blogging right now.  It’s not a bad thing at all cause there’s just so much fun stuff happening that I don’t have a ton of extra time.  Amanda and I have gotten to the point a few times now where we’ve made do-nothing dates!  I mean, we have lots of do stuff dates too, but some days planning an evening to just sit on the couch is so appreciated.  A sign of a busy life, or a sign of getting old?  Nah :p lol!

Sat. July 30:

Island Unplugged Festival – Pelee Island 🙂  Rode the ferry, explored the island, checked out our 5th of 6 concerts in 2016, slept on the ferry ride back, and slept in a Tim Horton’s parking lot.  <– don’t judge!  It was 1:30am and no time to attempt a 3 hour drive home.  And kinda fun lol!  5 concerts done, and every single one of them has been a whole new adventure.  This was no different!  Best way to describe it would be “it felt like we were crashing some ones family BBQ”.  Totally cool way to check out some good music and people watch 🙂  We food-prepped the hell out of this and were pretty well supplied for the adventure.  So well prepared with water we could have survived on the island for another 2 days, but better than not enough!  Still… cooler food can only take you so far.  The concert had a few food tents – fish and chips, grilled cheese, pie, or pulled pork.  Yup, a whole table devoted to each!  Who comes up with a grilled cheese table?  Pulled pork was the winner.

Mon. Aug. 1:

Buy In – 
Work up to heavy 1-3 reps Deadlift
#205
Work up to heavy 1-3 reps Back Squat
#155

Partner WOD – “The hundreds” (ish), for time:
150 calorie Row
(25 cal each, x2)
100 Kettlebell Swings
100 Burpee Box Jump Overs
100 Wallballs

Done in a team of 3.  Amanda and I did everything after the row as synchronized as possible, similar to the Team Throwdown.
Time – 24:48

Pretty happy with our time!  This was done as an AMRAP in the comp and the wallballs were deadlifts.  We got through an extra 25 cals today and there’s never an expectation of recreating the same level of intensity on a regular day that comes out in a comp!  The burpee box jump overs didn’t disappoint.  They hurt for all.

Tues. Aug. 2:

For Time:
10- Bench Press #185/#115  #85
20- Abmat Situps/Knees-Elbows/Toes-Bar GHD Sit Ups
8- Bench Press #185/#115  #85
20- Abmat Situps/Knees-Elbows/Toes-Bar GHD Sit Ups
6- Bench Press #185/#115  #85
20- Abmat Situps/Knees-Elbows/Toes-Bar GHD Sit Ups
4- Bench Press #185/#115  #85
20- Abmat Situps/Knees-Elbows/Toes-Bar GHD Sit Ups
2- Bench Press #185/#115  #95

Ok, maybe should have gone heavier from the start.  The GHD however… ouch.  No idea what my time was on this one, but GHD sit-ups make my head really fuzzy so finishing was my main focus.  Almost didn’t make it to work later cause I still felt pretty shaky and nauseous but an hour and a half nap on my couch helped.

Wed. Aug. 3:

2 Rounds for Time:
50- Wallballs 20lbs/14lbs
40- Box Jumps
30- Deadlifts #155/#105  #85
20- Calorie Row
15- Front Squats #155/105  #85
10- Shoulder to Overhead #155/#105  #85

Time – 24:18

Worked out with Amanda again this morning 🙂  Always a nice surprise to get a text on my way home from work asking if she can come over.  ❤  Anyways… nasty WOD!  My legs!!!  I anticipated the shoulder to overhead being the major suck factor here, but the front squats were actually pretty horrible!  Wallballs – legs.  Box Jumps – legs.  Deadlifts – legs.  Row – legs.  Front Squats?  Seriously?  lol!!  Round 2 I could have cried like a baby a few times, but my girl was there so I toughed it out :-p  Even squeezed in just under the 25 minute time cap!  After the WOD, we box jumped.  Cause that’s the logical thing to do 😉  Although I didn’t eat it once! (for once!)

24″ baby!

out of the dark

All too commonly my posts are sitting in draft stage until the “news” is no longer new, and my stories no longer interest me.  This one should have been posted yesterday, but I got hung up on a name again.  Who cares really?  Update for today on the Whole30 game.  It’s actually day 8, but day 2 of cutting my nut addiction.  Yesterday had awful stages.  Today I just want to lay down.  Like on the floor… of my office…  Bright side, my pants feel looser.  But my boobs grew.  WTF?

YEAH! SNOW! (what?!)

Despite waking up to a snow-covered landscape yesterday morning, it was a really great day.  Snow is pretty… in December.  It’s April.  Started my day with my first WOD that I didn’t have to scale (other than the #95, which I would have scaled on any old day), then a nice Easter Sunday with my mom and aunt.

Sun. Apr. 5:

“Cheif”

Partner WOD – 5 Rounds, AMRAP 5 minutes:

3 Power Cleans (#135/#95)   #85
6 Push-ups
9 Air Squats

Result – 51 rounds + 7 reps

Part 2 – Build up to HEAVY 1 rep Power Clean  #105

78 Power Cleans at #85 pain-free!  Yes!  To both bits of that.  My partner and I decided we’d scale the cleans to #80, but I grabbed the wrong plates so we decided “awww… screw it!” and stuck with #85.  As it turned out, the cleans were possibly the easiest part of this little sweat-fest.  And I surrender.  Rest is worth it.

So, you know the dark place you get to when you’re 50 reps into a WOD and realize there’s still 200 to go?  Maybe that gives you an idea of a place I’ve found myself on a few occasions recently.  I can’t pin point why, but there’s a pile of things that have contributed.  I’ve been battling injury since last Sunday so haven’t really worked out in a week!  I mean, I went Monday and scaled “Luke” beyond recognition.  Then realized I should really take a few days to let my sore hip recover.  I mean, I survived the Open relatively injury-free, so one should not complain, but my mind will always have a hard time with the whole “rest day” concept.  Let’s add to the list SP and I decided it was time we needed to get our sh*t together on the nutrition front.  I may have confessed already – my chocolate problem had gotten entirely out of hand.  We’re talking every day chocolate chips and nuts.  It had to stop!  SP and a whole pile of CFD ladies are going to Trinidad in May, so a Trinidad Whole30 group was formed and I jumped right on in.  Who starts Whole30 3 days before Easter?  Yes, that part wasn’t well thought out, but so far I think we’ve all survived.  First time through, I saw whole30 as a challenge and jumped right on board.  This time I’m happy to have the public accountability of the CFD group or I’m not sure I would have survived day 1.

I’ve been somewhat hesitant to write about food.  Some good discussion has come up with a few ladies at the box.  A few comments made recently have stuck with me.  “Sometimes knowing where you’ve been makes it worse” – in regards to having been smaller and fitting into clothes easier.  I have been there.  I still have the size 2 jeans hanging in my closet.  When I lost all the weight before, I held on to my “heavy pants” as a security blanket just in case I gained the weight back.  Until one day when I told myself that would never happen again and in the donation bin they went!  So… while I’m not suggesting I’m the fat kid of so many years ago, I wish I would have kept some of my heavy pants now!  Cause I’m now in a place where I think I need to come to the realization that I won’t be a size 2 again.  And really never should have been.  I wasn’t happier, except for when it came to shopping for pants.  That’s not life.  And I can bet there would have been no chance I could lift like a badass either.

The other comment that registered was “I’m just waiting for the day where I’m happy with my body.” – to which I responded “but when will that be?”.  If you’re a guy reading this, maybe you understand, maybe you don’t.  To all the females, I’m sure you do on some level.  My hesitation comes not from a feeling of being alone, but from an understanding that I’ve been down this road many times before.  I’ve cried to you all the same woes, but still haven’t found peace.  The definition of insanity – Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different result.  I mean, I’m happy I can lift like a badass and that should be enough, but I’m still human.  I still just want to fit in last summers’ shorts and not feel like I’ve been laced into a corset when I zip up my lulu hoody.

crockpot chicken curry w/zucchini noodles

It’s not the easiest thing in the world to get a good food pic when your meal is in a Pyrex container.  But that’s just reality cause without good food prep, I end up really struggling.  Like Tuesday when I had a bowl of Romaine lettuce with some cucumber for lunch.  Fail.  As Coach Dave said when SP threw me under the bus – That’s like all water.  Yup.  Anyways, the name of the game is preparation.  My crockpot has been reborn and holds a semi-permenant spot in my kitchen for the rest of the 30 days and the good old spiralizer has made a regular appearance as well.  If you don’t have one, they’re awesome!  Zucchini noodles are so easy and versatile and the thing even has a great recipe website – inspiralized.com

This is one of my favourites!  Teriyaki something-something. My mom is vegetarian, so I omitted the shrimp and egg and it still turns out incredible.