2/10/14 Mini Challenge – WOD

Mini Challenge – WOD

I had an epiphany while writing the last entry. Maybe I am so unsuccessful with challenges because they are too big and too overwhelming to complete. So I thought, why not break them into mini, daily challenges every day, so they see more manageable??? DUH!

Sooooo…. Here is the first entry about yesterday min challenge.  And the challenge was…..

JOIN A NEW GYM AND DO A WOD!

Seems so easy right???? Wrong.

I completed the first part easily; I went online, found one close (CrossFit Love), and signed up for my first wod for that night. EASY PEASY.

The second part was more difficult. I was soooo ready to work out because it’s been over a week. I miss it immensely. The last class was at 6pm (for folks like me, they have later competitions groups but I am not quite ready for that). OF COURSE!!!!! I have a meeting in the afternoon that runs over. So I don’t get out of work till 5:40pm. Leaving me on 20 min to go home, walk the dog and change into my gym clothes.

I was determined, I sped home and walked the dog as fast as his little legs ever went and got changed. I left for the class at 6pm, obviously a little late.

I put the address in my GPS and started going. It’s only like 0.70 miles from me so not a big deal that I was running a little late. Of course it is under an underpass in a dark, sort of shady looking area. I drove and couldn’t find it. I kept driving around and around following my STUPID GPS. I was being tested. I drove around for like 20 or more minutes until my phone was about to die and I had to give up. I also called them but no answer. I was so upset. WHERE THE F COULD IT BE??????

I returned home, defeated. So excited and energetic to work out and I couldn’t.

I figured so be it, I’ll go tomorrow. I will walk my dog instead. Another test. While I was on my way out of the apartment building, JACKSON (by stupid dog) tried to attack our new neighbor. Poor guy. I was so upset and embarrassed by this I just took him back inside. How is this possible? My first day to workout at a new gym, my first time meeting my new neighbor and my FIRST MINI CHALLENGE. Was I going to fail again????????????

He's so EVIL! Can you see it in his eyes?

So instead I cooked a pretty awesome dinner and calmed down. I was not going to fail YES AGAIN, when this mini challenge was supposed to help me succeed.

Chk thighs with balsamic glaze

Lara bar heated in the microwave. BROWNIE IMITATION!

So I worked out in my little living room/bedroom:

100 pushups, 150 sit ups and 200 squats. And it sucked. Each part sucked bad. It took me over 20 min.

Mini living room AND bedroom. 

MINI CHALLENGE 1 was a success. I FINISHED I FINISHED =)

Today’s mini challenge is going to be: Drink ONLY 16ox of coffee. I am hoping to give it up and I drink like gallons (maybe pints), but still a lot. Stay tuned for that =)

DEMOTIVATED

Oh my word how i have been demotivated to do anything at all. LOL!!!!!!

My life is full of challenges. Literally. I sign up for challenge after challenge, some are on my own and some are with a group. One week I say “no sugar” the next I say “no alcohol” and my first ultimate challenge, “make it to the crossfit games.” Every challenge ultimately ends prematurely with me saying “this wasn't the right one for me, let’s try a different one.”

I feel like my next challenge should be to “LIVE freely Talia, SANS CHALLENGES.”

Maybe I find self-worth in competing for something… except I never finish or “win” so not sure the meaning behind that.

Ummmm completed? Not yet

Anyway current challenge(s) because yes I am in 2 NUTRITION CHALLENGES AT THE MOMENT.  

1. Biggest Loser Challenge is challenge 1. This is easy; it’s basically whoever loses the most percentage of weight wins. The first weigh-in was ugly. Then I refused to even weigh in the next week because I knew it would be worse. Then I decided I would weigh in the third week and what a mistake that was, according to the scale, which I’m pretty sure if broken, said I gained 4 pounds since week 1. Liar. Then I got my sh*t together that week, worked out a lot and weighed in again the following week and I lost like 5 pounds since week one (like 9 pounds if you could since the previous week, but the scale was lying then so I’ll let go of that) . Anyway I didn't work out once after that weigh in and ate nonstop since, so I refuse to weigh in again this week. I feel pretty confident I am going to win this challenge though. The challenge is super easy too because I don’t really do much different, other than try to be a little more strict with my food and exercise. Which clearly I’m not even doing so no different than living normally and WILLING myself to win.
   
2. Second challenge is a nutrition challenge through my (old) gym. Very difficult. It’s like a total health challenge counting sleep, water, exercise, processed foods, sugar, etc. I think I’m good at challenges and overall health – not compared to others in this challenge. The more points you have at the end of the week the better. We are at the end of week one and most people are ending week 1 with like 120-130 points and I ended with 75. 75 measly points, indicating my overall health is CRAPPY. So naturally my instinct is to do a third challenge, which will ultimately help me win challenge one and challenge two.
3. Challenge three is the Whole9 challenge. If I complete this I have to win the other two because it’s basically eating exactly the opposite of what I normally eat. I’ll let you read for yourself. This means NO ALCOHOL. Oh my lord how do I do that???? 
   
4. Maybe my 4^th challenge will be to learn to be HAPPY with myself and STOP challenging myself to always be better, better, better
   
   
   
   
   

I think it’s wonderful to try to better yourself, but I haven’t completed a “challenge” EVER. This saddens me.

Anyway I will document my ongoing (almost daily because this blog was a challenge and you see from my lack of entries I sort of failed at this also) challenges. Maybe it will help me finish to be SUCCESSFUL or maybe I’ll learn to f*ck challenges and just BE. 

Mom

This blog post is dedicated to my adopted mom, Justin Mom (because I don't know her first name). She adopted me at the ripe age of 27 and we've been so happy together ever since.  Mom and I sat down for an interview. 

Mom and Julie (Justin's GF). LOVE Mom!

My brother Justin, he's the best!

·        Me: What was it like adopting a 27 year old intelligent, beautiful, amazing crossfitter?

·        Mom: Who?

·        Me: MOM! Me!!!!

·        Mom: Oh yes. Interestingly I have only met you once and when we did meet you told me you thought I would look way older. 

·        Me: Perhaps I thought you should be older because I am 27 and my brothers are 30-something and 20-something, and you're only 40 something. Back to my earlier question, what is it like to have been blessed with me in the family?

·        Mom: I imagine you’re a great influence on Justin, other than that I still am not too sure who you are.

·        Me: Funny you should say that. What’s your favorite food? Is it fried Oreos? Buff chicken salad from Pat’s?

·        Mom: I’ve never had Pat’s buff chicken salad.

·        Me: You should try it, it’s AMAZING. Do you enjoy a good pruppet show?

·        Mom: What’s a pruppet show?

·        Me: Nothing, nevermind. Let’s talk about me again. Did you cry at my wedding?

·        Mom: I was not at your wedding

·        Me: WHAT???? You’re my mother, I thought you were there watching me.

·        Mom: I’m sorry, I wasn’t there.

·        Me: OK, forgiven. Is it difficult to handle that you and I are responsible for making Justin and Joey, my brothers and your sons, responsible, respectful men?

·        Mom: I think we have done a great job so far. Both of them made questionable decisions at one point with clothing choices and facial and hair styles, however I feel like they are on the right track now

·        Me: thanks to me mainly, I tell them when they look like Vinnie and Pauly from you know where?

·        Mom: No, where?

·        Me: Nevermind… do you think Justin, my favorite brother, will stop eating so much?

·        Mom: No and now I am going to have to cook for him again when I move in.

·        Me: Don’t let him get chubby again, that was a rough time in our lives as a family. What is your favorite memory of me as a child?

·        Mom: That’s a tough question…

·        Me: How so?

·        Mom: Mainly because I wasn’t there for your childhood. Although I did enjoy meeting you for the first time 6 weeks ago.

·        Me: Me too… that was a special time. Well mom, this was a nice interview. Thank you for donating your time to my readers. I’ll be home a little late tonight, I can’t wait for whatever you’re making for dinner. 

Where Have I Been Part 2

Part of the reason I was hesitant to start a freaking blog was because I am the worst at sticking with something. I always find excuses to not do it. CrossFit is a bit different, but there are even days when I just don’t feel like jumping on a box or throwing a ball 9 feet high against a wall. This week was one of those weeks where CrossFit and I were not friends. 

I blame it on my eating. I literally ate like the world was ending on Saturday and Sunday. I have been watching the Walking Dead, so perhaps I was eating like the world may end soon, I don’t know. Side note, The Walking Dead is my new obsession!!!! I don’t know why I didn’t watch from the beginning because I love zombies! I watch at least three episodes a night on Netflix. Still only on season 2, but I hope to catch up fast. 

Back to my issue, I didn’t take many pics of all the food I ate, but it was in excess because Monday I wasn’t hungry AT ALL. Let’s just say this is how I felt putting on pants Monday morning…. 

So I didn’t CrossFit Saturday or Sunday. I forced myself to go Monday but it was like the hardest decision I have ever made. On Monday I did “Karen” (150 wall balls for time, 20#) and did awesome. My time was 7:13, which was a PR of more than 2 min since the last time I did Karen during the open. Not only did I PR but I did the 90 double unders afterwards to see what my time was compared to when I did it in the open, and I finished the double unders at 9:45. The open WOD was 12 min amrap, 150 wall balls, 90 double unders and 30 ring muscle ups. During the open I think I only completed 45 of the double unders before the time ran out, and this time I finished them all with more than 2 min to spare!!! Of course I can’t do a muscle up, so had it been the open I would have stood around for 2 min lol.  I suppose I should work on those muscle ups.

Regardless of working out I still felt like crap all day Monday. I felt nauseas, tired and I had a headache all day. I even felt like that a bit of Tuesday as well, and Tuesday I still didn’t want to work out, but I forced myself AGAIN. I rowed 1,000 meters for time and completed it in 3:52.

I’m not sure how fast that time is compared to top CrossFit athletes, I know I’m not the fastest rower in our gym though, but to complete 1,000 meter row in less than 4 min is huge for me. since I began CrossFit almost 1 year ago I have never completed 1,000 meters in under 4 min. actually I before Karen I did 1,000 row for a warm up and did it in 3:58 which was my first real real time under 4 min. I HATE rowing. I don’t know why I feel like I should be better since I’m tall but I’m just not. Just as a reference my rowing numbers are improving, my fastest previously was 4:09, then I did 4:00 and finally now under 4. After the row I wanted to go home lol but I still wodded slowly. 21,18,15,12,9,6,3 box jumps, kb swings 16kg and pushups. Pushups….. WHY DO I SUCK AT YOU TOO??? Are my arms sooooooo long and weak that I can’t lower and push my big body up????? I refuse to even discuss pushups right now because I hate them so much.

So back to my beginning point, is it my crappy eating that made me feel like crap which then turned into not wanting to WOD, my most favorite thing? Or does my body just get tired every two weeks and I need to take off 2-3 days from wodding (this CAN’T be it because I don’t even work out that much, 5-6 days a week MAYBE!) why can’t I just stay consistent? I’m experimenting by not eating like the world is ending this week or next week and I will see how it affects my motivation and ability to work out.

Next point…. Why am I back to binge eating?????? The weekdays I am pretty good, come Saturday I binge a little, maybe a normal cheat meal, Sunday I eat like the world is ending (lol this reference is the only thing I can think of to describe my eating).

wings, to go with my cheese fries, fish tacos and fried s'mores

I ate more than 1 of these, don't be fooled

Speaking of experimenting, I started yet another food challenge this week. Paleo challenge. Only Monday-Friday (this is my 3^rd challenge/food plan in the last month). I don’t care about winning anything for this or even losing the 12lbs (maybe 15lbs now) I still am trying to lose. I literally see this as something to force me to eat real foods as opposed to processed sugar coated fried beer. I needed to do this just to detox from the weekend. So I’m only eating whole foods and some other stuff like dairy free yogurt. Chicken and turkey, veggies, sweet potato and squash, and fruits and nuts.  I’m hoping to do this for the two weeks to see how it effects my motivation and ability to WOD. Saturday and Sunday I will maybe eat less paleo friendly foods and try to only have ONE CHEAT MEAL. 

And some random pics...

My awesome CrossFit total score from last week!!!

310# deadlift! yesssssssss

Building new boxes at the gym =)

Tasty and healthier snack than of fried s'mores =)

I am definitely a yogurt snob

No Back protein bars by The Betty Rocker

Jackson being a hypochondriac at the vet (he is perfectly fine)

Who has a better catfish face? Me definitely

Me and Alli doing handstands at the bar lol

Baked egg in 1/2 avocado

My obsession with hot ground chicken sausage

Where Have I Been????

Seriously? Where have I been? I said when I started this blog I would be consistent with it and here it’s been 10 days since my last post. Ughhhhhh. And I don’t even have any awesome crossfit updates or pics. So this will be a post about where I have been and what I've eaten recently.

I visited the shore for Labor Day with my family.  

Me and Jackson on the way!

Going in I had all intentions of eating healthy. FAIL. Well partial fail. I ate well during the day then at nightfall, like the move twilight, all hell broke loose and if it was edible I ate it. 

Roasted veggies... healthy

Greek yogurt and nectarine.... healthy

1 egg, 1/4 piece toast.... not bad

What the HELL mom and dad! For breakfast? cupcakes!!!!

And it continues.... this was my SECOND plate of desserts

...and continues

So as I said, as the daylight hours whittled away so did my inhibition. Good thing it was so much fun though!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE THE BEACH. My last hoorah there I'm sure. 

Future child crossfitter? maybe. Is it creepy I was taking pic of kids on the beach?

The beach trip ended and I did get back into a routine with better choices. Plain greek yogurt with agave syrup and berries is my new go to snack and I can't forget coffee (and YES that is an awesome coffee mug with a picture of me from my 1970's high school yearbook lololol).

This interesting concoction is my current fall obsession... Roasted acorn squash with ground chicken sausage and goat cheese. Weirdly amazing!

And an awesome and easy healthy alternative to microwave an oatmeal cookie from my favorite blogger Carrots and Cake. It may seem weird, but it was really good.  

On to crossfit.... I'm in a slump right now. Every time I go away my crossfit routine suffers. The last WOD I did was on Saturday =( which is 4 days ago!!!! Regardless the WOD I did was a repeat from March and I PR'ed by more than 3 minutes!!!! I went from 29 minutes and some seconds to 25 minutes and some seconds, WOOO HOOOO! PRs everywhere. Although it sucked horribly, burpees and me are like Edward and Jacob (so many twilight references today oh my goodness).

I won't go back to crossfit till tomorrow morning and then I'll just have to WOD it out like 5 days in a row and add a second session to one of those days I guess (that's how I'll make it to the Games right????).

Next post will be SOON I promise =)

WHOLE FOODS TRIP

Who doesn’t Love Whole Foods???? All of you heath and food nuts out there do, I know it. I love it so much, because I LOVE food, and I feel especially great about food when I know (think) it’s healthy. Although it is rather expensive =(

So here are some recent purchases at the wonderful Whole Foods. 

I didn't buy much produce because I don't really need any now, but one of the reasons I love Whole Foods is because they have great, organic produce, such as apples! 

FALL! It’s here (almost). Is there a better way to celebrate than with all different, awesome squashes??? NO!

I only bought one acorn squash because I can’t have all these squashes lying around my little house, even though it is so festive. In honor of fall I also bought some apple butter.

I am so excited about this purchase, last year was the first time I ever tried it and I fell in love. Honestly, you can use it with everything, greek yogurt, SQUASH, toast and cheese… the possibilities are endless!

What else did I buy…. You all know of my love for nut butters, right? Well Whole Foods has an amazing section of different brands and varieties and I needed a replacement for work. LOOK at all those nut butters!!! Lol

I bought this Earth Balance coconut and peanut spread. It is made with coconut oil which I thought was cool. It tastes like peanut butter with a touch of coconut, so I say GOOD buy (not goodbye because I like it, but GOOD BUY because it as a good purchase).

I wanted to try this other brand NutZo (it uses 7 different varieties of nuts) but HELLO! Look at those prices!!!! For freaking nut butter? Even I’m not that silly. Maybe I'll ask for a jar for Christmas =)

Next to the nut butters are chocolate and what girl doesn’t love this stuff. Whole Foods has a HUGE selection of awesome chocolate as well.

My favorite brand is chocolove, but this time (like the nut butter) I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone, so I bought milk chocolate with toffee and sea salt.

It is really really good. Usually I only eat dark chocolate, but this was definitely worth it. And it comes in easy to break apart squares, meaning it's almost (almost) impossible for me to eat more than I should.

UMMM yes, they taste even better when dipped in the peanut butter coconut butter spread lol!

Lastly, as you can see from my checkout line, I purchased plain greek yogurt, mini chocolate chips (why? I don’t know because I have 4 bags in the freezer at home lol), Ezekiel bread and wraps, ground chicken sausage (SOOOOO excited about this), almond meal/flour and organic apples.

Like I mentioned earlier, Whole Foods is soooo expensive. This small amount of food cost $63!!! Of course most of these items are not cheap at all, Almond flour $7, nut butter $7, apples (4) $4, chicken $8, catch my drift? 

Maybe Elyse at The Unexpected Crossfitter will write a another post about budgeting and better spending on healthy foods because I need help!