san francisco cheat weekend

If you haven't read the book BossyPants by Tina Fey, I would encourage you to drop what you're doing, purchase it (as an added bonus, if you go purchase it at borders bookstore you may even see snarky signs like "no bathrooms, try amazon"), let it sit on your night stand like all those other books you buy fully intentioned to read but never get around to. Or you could read it and have a few laughs as I did on the plane home from San Francisco (few things are as depressing as landing in Houston when traveling from San Francisco. If you thought Houston weather was bad, just visit places with a nice cool 70 degrees year round, then come back to 95 and 150% humidity, yikes.) Tina Fey's humor is about as aligned with mine as could be, which is to say sarcastic, degrading and sometimes crude. I don't know what I would pay to be able to read her thoughts and see how she sees the world, but its a whole bunch of money. If you're looking for a non-captivating or non-wild-at-heart-living-in-a-shack-something-about-love-tatooed-dragon book to read, I recommend this one if only for the pictures.

Also if you can't tell by now, sometimes I will write paragraphs that have absolutely nothing to do with the theme of this blog, which is "me trying to get in shape and everyone else getting to laugh at me", but like I said in an earlier post, this blog is a living, changing thing and might include some non fitness related material from time to time. Sorry, I'm not sorry.

As I mentioned previously I traveled to San Francisco over this memorial day weekend, probably my favorite city in the United States. The trip was for a buddy's bachelor party, but I really do look for any excuse to get out to San Francisco. The shocking part of this trip, is that my blog WASNT the thing everyone was talking about which tells me a few things 1) I'm not yet "there" with my fitness goals because people weren't asking me "how did you do it??" and 2) the few in SF that actually read this aren't spreading the word, which is okay by me, because they are too busy eating brunch and wearing half zip fleeces, vans, and fancy jeans to be talking about me.

I knew going into this trip that eating healthy was going to be problematic which was confirmed as our first stop was at In-N-Out. By the way, I think In-N-Out is good, but not waiting for an hour to get my food good (people of dallas, what the heck???). I was good about ONE thing during the trip, I maintained myself gluten free (sans ONE beer, but it was a good one). This wasn't easy at all as one of the guys freakin whipped up stuffed french toast for breakfast and I had to sit there in complete awe (this was honestly one of the few times I've just wanted to give up and eat gluten since the experiment started , french toast and I have a long complicated history, it just gets me). I definitely wasn't perfect, as I learned that setting 7 layer dip and corn tortilla chips in front of me will cause me to go into robot mode and eat until the dip has been eliminated, but remembered the wise words of Everyday Paleo, and that is if you're going to cheat just make sure its not with gluten.

Also I drank WAY too much soda, (yes occasionally (often) mixed with whiskey, and sometimes at 10am) but even in the airport on the way home I had difficulty switching back to water. On the airplane I ordered my coke zero just like old times. Within a span of 4 days it went from "cheating" with a soda to "this is natural". I'm now beginning to sympathize and understand how hard it can be to quit smoking and how just a couple bad decisions (one smoke with a friend, etc) can turn "cheating" into "2 packs a day" (though the real question in my mind is why do people ever start, but thats not a question we're going to delve into in this blog).

We managed a few items of physical activity, but nothing as vigorous as a typical crossfit workout. To sum up the weekend, I didn't eat great and was pretty lazy. I really came away from the weekend confused as to if I did "well" or if I really let my body down. I avoided gluten, didn't eat cake but definitely didn't stay paleo, and hadn't gotten to workout since thursday (my gym was closed today, which BTW Charlie if you ever stumble upon this, umm its tuesday after memorial day, everyone else had to go back to work, whats the deal?), surely I must've gained 4 lbs back.

174 on the dot. This was great news to me as I thought I had surely set myself back a few weeks (not saying I didn't set myself back, but at least not in weight). The moral of this story is, setbacks in diet and exercise are going to happen, but as long as you don't feel sorry for yourself they won't prevent you from achieving your goals.

So goals for this week:

*Get back into paleo - with more vegetables. I purchased some broccoli and butternut squash (I know, my life is a little TOO exciting for this online space) and will hopefully turn them into something tasty

*Drink only water - need to help flush my body of all the soda I drank. I really felt it on my run this afternoon (tried to go 4 miles), just felt sluggish, of course maybe that was the fact I'm running in Houston and the humidity makes it feel like I'm running in a swimming pool

Those are my only two goals. I'm hoping I can build on those small but big changes next week.

Also, (not sure why I said 'also' as this has nothing to do with the previous paragraph) I officially switched Crossfit Gyms to the Midtown location called PinUp. Factoring in my new work location, and the only reason I have to go north of westheimer is Church on sundays. I'm already loving (and in my mind spending) the savings on my gas bill. The best part of pinup is they don't have very many people, I might honestly be the only one in my T/TH class, so please if you're interested you should definitely come join me. It'll be all the benefits of personal coaching without the intimidating big guys there (unless I can get my hands on some steroids).

So there you have it, proof that cheating isn't the end of the world (just don't let it become a habit).

I'll have time later

This was one of those nights where I was hitting a brain freeze on what to post, and thought about taking the night off. Then I realized that I'm flying out of here tomorrow (there are 3 roommates, so the house will still remain guarded all you would be internet stalking robbers) and won't be posting all weekend leaving my wonderful readers with no new material to make fun of me with. Generally I just post on topics that people have been asking about, and the main consensus from calls / emails / fanmail and one photoshopped album of our wedding and what our kids would look like, I've noticed a running theme of "oh this is great, how do I get started?" or "but it just seems like so much for me to handle and I have no time".

I've tried to address how to get started, its all about commitment and having the intrinsic motivation (just engaged, competition with friend, doctor tells you if you don't cut weight you're going to die in the next year, etc) and then working out and writing everything down (with changing your diet being the mega elephant in the room) to keep yourself accountable. The time issue is tough, I'm fortunate enough to have a job that allows me flexibility to come in early and leave early but, I'm about to experience that same problem as I'm switching assignments this next wednesday (essentially like getting a completely different job, just in the same non profit oil company) and have no idea what my hours / rules will be. I could be working a lot more, or just having to work later in the day. Plus I already know that I will be spending 2 weeks in training in New York (Rochester, not NYC) and am NOT looking forward to missing workout for two weeks (so obviously there will be posts about me freaking out the other hotel guests trying to get my workout in).

My philosophy on the whole "time" matter, there will never be a point in your life when you are "finally ready" or "finally have time". People are busy (or in college, which is NOT busy), the hustle and bustle of life isn't going to slow down in 6 months, as one work project ends another is going to begin. Don't let "no time" be the excuse, unless you're an investment banker then I have no idea what to tell you.

WARMUP:

15 Body Squats

15 Pushups

15 Situps

200 m run

With the lovely weather of houston now approaching 100 degrees when I workout, it doesn't take much for me to "warm up". Quite frankly its like working out in a sauna.

Main WOD:

50 Snatches (75 lbs)

50 Situps

50 Wallballs (20 lbs)

50 Bent Over Rows (25 lb dumbells)

100 walking lunges holding plate overhead (35 lb plate)

200 m sprint

Didn't do so well on this workout, generally the strength endurance ones really get me. What am I saying, they ALL get to me, it's really getting to the point I should just program this thing to automatically type "that was a really tough workout" because I have yet to find one that hasn't been challenging to me. Repping out 75lb snatches was a big accomplishment for me, because if you recall the last time I did snatches I was using a 45lb bar only. I think I'll settle for an almost 50% gain. If I can keep up that improvement I'll be setting world records in a year. The most tiring of them all was the 100 walking lunges, what a killer.

Tonight me and some friends cooked a very paleo friendly meal. Central market pre-marinated fajita steak, mashed sweet potatoes, guacamole, and sauteed spinach. See, just because things are healthy doesn't mean bland or terrible.

Getting started

Thankful for the day off today (though does fitness ever really sleep? Weight gain and pesky pounds sure don't thats for sure, am I right ladies?) as I was definitely feeling the effects of deadlifts yesterday. I still haven't achieved my goal of eating more vegetables, but apparently roasted broccoli is awesome so I'm going to try it next week (and if it's not the best thing I've ever tried, I will never take a suggestion from you again Steck). I also took a big step today and emailed my friend whose bachelor party I'm attending in two days to tell him about my dietary restrictions and some work arounds. I think it's important and can be a big help to your personal goals to tell others what you are trying to do. For big weekend camping events (we're going to be off in Tahoe somewhere) when people say "don't worry I'm handling the food" it naturally means lots of chips, pb and j sandwiches, maybe some meat to grill, and other snacks that I probably should stay away from. By simply telling him I was trying to avoid gluten (I didn't break down paleo in the email), it was really easy to ask him to pick up some beef jerky / almonds / and extra of whatever meat we're grilling for my snacks (but matt if he's such a good friend shouldn't he know? well he might not read the blog, shocking, I know.) so hopefully I can maintain my quest to be gluten free.

So my advice for people looking to start a fitness plan is as follows:

1) take photos of yourself - thats what got me motivated. Sometimes we don't believe what we can't see, and in my case it was my double chin forming. A couple photos really got me motivated to change it.

2) Tell people - start a blog (and share the link), or get a group of friends to do it together. Fitness shouldn't be a secret that you keep to yourself, let other's successes motivate you and push you to work harder. Sure you have to put up with some awkward "you're on a diet??" ( to which I want to explain that a diet = what you eat, and that everyone's on "a diet" and the only thing I did was change mine, but alas I digress) but I find it quite enjoyable when people come to me with questions.

3) Write it down. Tony Horton of p90x made one of the most prophetic statements of our time when he talks about not knowing what to do if you don't know what you did. At the small non profit oil company I work for, we occasionally have guest speakers come talk about fitness and getting into shape. One year the speaker gave what I think is the best advice, he said everyday you should write down "if I did today everyday for a year, I would look...(insert blank), feel.. (insert blank), etc". Writing things down and keeping food logs also adds another layer of accountability, especially if you have to show those logs to people. Thats essentially what I want this blog to be, a place where I can write down everything I did that day (and gives me a creative outlet for writing).

4) Put your money where your mouth is - I'm not gonna lie, crossfit is expensive. It's expensive enough that I will NOT miss class. Totally worth it.

5) Set tangible goals - Don't say to yourself "I want to lose some weight", thats too abstract. Start with 10lbs and then reward yourself for achieving that goal. I've found turning everything into manageable smaller goals works best.

Once again I'm no expert, and am definitely not in super duper shape and haven't been mistaken for a replica of the David statue. What I just listed are the techniques that are helping me get there though.

Finally, I made paleo meatloaf this week. I actually really like meatloaf whereas some people think its the worst thing on the planet. I used grassfed beef and it was not only delicious, but gave me 5 meals out of it (and the price per meal goes down with each batch because I don't have to buy almond meal each time, etc).

Rewarding yourself

I think a very effective method to keeping yourself motivated to an exercise plan is rewarding yourself for achieving short term goals. Goals such as, "when I lose 10lbs I'm going to.." and it can be anything (hopefully its not a food related goal but lifes too short to not enjoy french toast and ice cream). One of the positive externalities I've been facing lately is that my pants are no longer fitting. Work pants that I used to have to suck in to get buttoned and zipped in the morning are now being held up by a belt that is on the first notch. Well because of this "problem", I've decided that I'm going to reward myself with a new pair of jeans that actually fit. I'm not sure what the goal is I'm going to set, it might be something like "if I make 90% of workouts during the summer" or "whenever september rolls around". I'm also going to have to reward myself by getting my suit tailored. These might be expenses, but these are the fun expenses of getting in shape.

Its funny how when something I post about "I should be doing" presents itself in real life just a few days later. It's also funny how I make a post about how I "don't get sore anymore" and then have spent the last week in a state of constant soreness. Today was particularly bad, and I felt relieved when I was talking to some crossfitmates (classmates? Not sure of the term I should use here) and they confirmed they were sore as well. Apparently the "Cindy" workout really got everyone yesterday. In an earlier post I talked about needing to push myself out of my comfort zone and continue striving to get better. Todays workout was one of those opportunities to do just that.

Warmup:

2 Rounds:

15 Back Extensions

15 Kb swings

15 Box Jumps

15 Double Unders

The warmups are designed to do exactly what they're called, warm up your muscles. It amazes me how little I used to warm up when I was "doing my own thing" at the gym. This warm up was great because it really got your back and legs loose and ready to work, which is important because the wod today had deadlifts.

WOD:

400m run

21 Deadlifts

21 Handstand pushups

400m run

15 Deadlifts

15 Handstand pushups

400m run

9 Deadlifts

9 Handstand pushups

My usual deadlift weight is 155lbs, but I decided to force myself to do an uncomfortable weight, so today I upped it to 185lbs. I knew right from the first rep that it was going to be heavy, and required me to focus on every rep. I'm glad that I fought through it and completed every rep, but as I lay here now writing this (from my bed with a wireless keyboard and mouse, really the best computer setup ever) I'm FEELING it. The handstand pushups, which is one of those 'man-maker' (sorry for the lack of pc-ness ladies) exercises that I can't do yet, so I had to scale and use a box. My "victory" today felt hollow because of scaling the handstand pushups, I watched some guys really fight for it on those and expressed to them how awesome it was. One of my goals is to start practicing handstand pushups before class, but I'm a ways off from knocking out 21 in a set (of course I talked this way about pullups just a few weeks ago)...

My time for this WOD: 16:28

gotta walk before you can crawl

In high school my pre cal teacher is the smartest man I have ever talked to in my life. I'm pretty sure this guy founded mensa. He had a saying that to get good at a particular level of math, to just take the course after it. For instance to handle pre cal, your algebra 2 has to be solid, and if it wasn't solid it had better sharpen quickly lest you get left behind.

I took this theory and have started applying it to crossfit. I just try to push forward in difficulty and hope that the rest of me can catch up. When I started about 4 weeks ago, I was using the assistance bands for my pull ups because I could only do about 2 and there was no way I could complete the workouts. Well during a particular workout that included sets of thrusters and pullups, I was getting tired of having to slip the band around my foot (think a giant high tension rubber band, so getting it on wasn't the easiest) and towards the final sets decided to just give it a go without the band and hope my body could catch up. To my delight I was able to handle the pullups then and made the decision from then on out that I would only pull out the bands in extreme situations (i.e I literally cannot do another pullup during a workout). I feel like that decision was me taking the next math class and hoping that my previous math skills would sharpen up.

Warmup:

200 m run

200 m run (backwards)

12 pushups

12 slamballs

12 lunges

12 situps

12 wallballs

WOD:

"Cindy"

AMRAP 20 minutes:

5 pullups

10 pushups

15 body weight squats

Todays named WOD was Cindy, but fortunately for today it was a partner WOD. Partner A would complete a round, then partner B would do a round (full round) and so forth. My partner and I really pushed it today and completed 20 rounds. The big accomplishment for me was that I didn't use any assistance at any point of the pullups, meaning I completed 50 pullups today which is about a 30000% increase from about a month ago.

Week Recap - stagnant weight

Weighed in at 174.8 tonight, which is unfortunate because I didn't meet my weight loss goals despite a very solid week for me. My only cheats were a couple glasses of wine during the week, at that fancy dinner party I described previously, a couple drinks friday night and one "cheat" meal which consisted of gluten free pasta, shrimp, and a sauce that was unfortunately made of heavy cream. I can definitely say that the change in my diet has helped changed the way my body responds to bad foods, as I was wrecked after the dish (side note: I just really wanted shrimp and I thought since the pasta was gluten free I'd be okay, I was wrong) with a bloated feeling and I paid for it the next day (in the bathroom) (eww gross TMI) (just keeping it real).

I think that was a good thing in the long run, as now that I know how my body responds to eating crap (heavy cream sauce was what did me in, and I think I'm a little lactose intolerant but that's another story) I'm even less tempted then before to break my paleo streak.

Another reason I'm hoping to explain my lack of weight loss this week is the fact that I'm hopefully putting on lean muscle mass. As I said before the main thing I care about (from a vanity sake) is my BMI (body mass index) which is basically a calculation of body fat %. If I lose a pound of fat and put on a pound of muscle (which could be the case because I was able to increase my resistance (weight) in multiple exercises this week than I am more than completely satisfied. Never the less I can't just assume thats the reason, that would be falling into the temptation that most people fall into that assume they burned more calories than they did or that certain foods "aren't so bad", so I must keep tweaking diet.

My first tweak will be to lessen the amount of trail mix I snack on throughout the week and try to find a way to sneak some vegetables into my snacking habits. There is nothing easy about that, as I don't really like vegetables. If there was ever a study that came out denouncing broccoli as even somewhat bad for you, I assure you I would never touch broccoli again. I'm hoping that either sliced cucumbers or sauteing some vegetables and just snacking on those throughout the week will do the trick. I'm also going to increase the amount of water I'm drinking to hopefully 64oz a day. We just got a brita filter at home so it should be easier (tap water is terrible) to meet that goal.

Other then those tweaks I think I'm on the right path, my activity level is good, I feel I'm in a better mood throughout the day and I don't fall victim to food comas and severe energy crashes from spikes and drops in my insulin levels.

This coming weekend will be tough as I'm flying out to SF for a good friend's bachelor party. SF is one of my favorite cities and has all sorts of great food, it will be quite a challenge to stay as paleo as possible. I'm hoping we can make a stop at Trader Joe's before we make the drive out to Tahoe as I'm fearing the default food will be "pb & j" or something of that nature. However, I understand that it'd be easy to be perfectly paleo if I stayed in a cave by myself for the rest of my life, but what fun is getting in shape if I don't get out to enjoy it?? I'm hoping to be able to post some paleo triumphs of how to handle a weekend trip and maintain fitness goals (i.e. get up and sneak a quick workout or something) but we'll see how this goes.

Goals for this week:

-Drop to 172.8 by my next weigh in,

-Increase my intensity on my workouts and keep working until the final buzzer

-Eat more vegetables

-Enjoy my new healthy lifestyle and the extra energy I have

-Have a blast in California

How Do I get 6 a pack? / Saturday Morning WOD

After today's workout I purposed Charlie with the following question:

"Hey Charlie should I add in extra ab work if I want a 6 pack by september?"

"Nope, change your diet."

Before you anti-anti-gluten people use this as your "ah ha!" moment against me, he didn't know I've been strict paleo (which I told him I was immediately following that response, to which he changed it to "then keep it up"). The basic premise behind his answer was that the key to revealing your abs is to essentially uncover them, and that any additional work I put in on top of the workouts wouldn't hurt, but have very little tangible effect until I've lost all the weight. I was hoping to speed the process up and "meet in the middle", but apparently it doesn't work that weigh. So to people who spend thousands of dollars on ab toys or toiling away hours and hours doing those extra crunches, while that "can't hurt" the real thing elephant in the room that you should be spending your energy on is your diet.

Also today was yet another opportunity (different group of friends) to be instantly interrogated, which I of course love. Though I'm not quite sure what to say when people say "hey nice blog" or something to that effect, it's still a treat because it usually inspires many questions as if I'm some sort of expert (believe me, if I was some sort of expert you'd be reading my books and paying top dollar to come to my motivational conferences... or at least you'd listen to me on late night infomercials hopefully paying middle dollar for my latest scam invention (like the shake-weight)). So please feel free to ask me all about crossfit, paleo, whatever because its all interesting to me, even though my roommate today made the "are you talking about working out again??", to which my only reply can be "they asked". I promise I have other interests that you can talk to me about too.

So I will reiterate to people the purpose of this blog as I'm sure (hopeful) there's going to be some new readers: I decided that I was tired of being average (for lack of a better word), tired of being a little chubby, tired of starting and stopping exercise plans and decided to dive headfirst into crossfit / paleo diet and document everything. The unique perspective is, whereas most blogs / workout videos / motivational things are from the viewpoint of someone who is already "accomplished", or "ripped" or already where the intended audience wants to be, mine is from the opposite, its from the viewpoint of me (aka "the audience") trying to get to that point.

Yes I know, I need a better mission statement for this thing which will hopefully evolve over time, for now that's the best I got.

Oh I also did a WOD today, the last free saturday. Apparently the coaches don't like working for free, or they've grown the gym to a size they feel comfortable with, or they just count on schmucks like me to blog about it and build word of mouth advertising (even though they don't know about or read this yet... all in good time), either way the free saturdays are coming to an end. There will be one free saturday per month, which is good and bad in my opinion. Good because it will be easy for people to plan around, bad because I was using it as my 4th workout per week and now thats not an option.

Once again, Hart joined me for this killer partner WOD:

Warmup:

15 lunges (per leg)

15 squats

15 pushups

2x

WOD

AMRAP 25 minutes:

30 Jump Squats

20 Push Press (75 lbs)

30 Pushups

The "partner" part of this WOD was, partner A completes their reps then rests as partner B completes their reps, but both must complete the prescribed reps (i.e A does 30 B does 30). In a word: Brutal. I would challenge anyone reading this to just casually complete 30 jumpsquats without resting, my legs were on FIRE during the first set (and I did in fact complete without resting). Hart is quite a bit stronger than me (one of the annoying things in life is bringing friends who are immediately better than you at something you've been practicing for weeks) so he was able to handle the 75lbs much easier than I was, as that would be considered "moving up" from my usual weight that I workout with AND 20 reps! Yikes. I managed to complete 2 rounds at 75lbs then dropped weight all the way down to a 35lb kettlebell, I attempted the 53lb kettlebell but decided looking strong wasn't as important as NOT dropping the kettlebell on my face. Finally the pushups I did the first set as full pushups, but the next 2 sets I definitely scaled down to my knees, and am not ashamed.

All in all we powered through and gave a strong effort completing 3 rounds + 63. Afterwards I've never felt so exhausted in my life, I was absolutely dead. I think the alcohol from last night (just a few drinks, I definitely was not hung over trying to do this) was affecting me, as this was the first workout where I nearly pulled over on the way home to vomit. In fact this afternoon I laid down and was in a coma type sleep as my entire body shut down, so at least they ended the saturday morning sessions with a bang.

does crossfit make you a better two stepper?

Off day, which I guess one tip is I try to lower the amount of food I intake on days I'm not working out. I'm hoping that logic makes sense to the masses but I'll try to explain it, one of the reasons people gain weight in college (besides binge drinking) and then once again when they graduate into the world of corporate desks (this time binge happy hours) is that their activity level decreases while their food intake does not.

A common question I've come across lately, does crossfit help you with two stepping? In a word, no it does not, however it does build your confidence in all aspects of life (meaning I felt more assertive pushing my way through people with gel in their hair and dragons on their shirts) and confidence is a major component of two stepping. Also, wearing boots makes one more confident, so really the math equation I determined tonight is boots + crossfit = one confident two stepper (even though I'm still not very good).

WOD and Crossfit vs P90x (also known as the case for crossfit)

I've been asked many times as to how I would compare crossfit to the ever so popular P90x (you can go ahead and include 'insanity' , 'tae-bo', and any Jane Fonda workout VHS into this, but for your sake I'm only going to use P90x).

Full disclosure, I have tried and quit P90x at least 3x in my life (all in the past two years)and really bought into the theory of "if I just do this I'll be ripped like Tony" (and hopefully spouting out his great one liners to people), but it just never worked for me. I'll go ahead and knock out the biggest advantage P90x has over crossfit, and that's cost. I pay more per month than the entire video set cost me. There are of course hidden costs in P90x, such as pullup bar, sweet workout gloves (ahh I can't make fun of those anymore even though I still haven't used them in an actual workout), various dumbells, and expensive window coverings so people walking by your house can't peer in and watch you. The dumbells were the hardest part, I didn't want to get a set but for some of the dvd's you need to be able to switch to multiple weights quickly without taking a long rest to change plates (and with the screw on dumbbells it takes forever to change weights). However, its still much much cheaper and I understand and fully respect that.

Now I'll list a few reasons why I feel personally feel that crossfit is superior to P90x:

1. Its not at your home - This might seem like an advantage for P90x purely because of a convenience factor, but from what I've found to be true in my life is when you're working out at home the slightest distraction or excuse to not workout will win out. Sometimes you're just too tired or the new season of Jersey Shore is premiering that night, whatever it is getting out of the house removes many distractions. I'm not sure if someone has ever said 'half the battle is just showing up' (and judging from inaccuracy of quotes on the internet these days, I'm going to attribute that to Abraham Lincoln, RIP) but it holds very true in my life.

2. Its always different - Other then time of day I show up, its impossible to have a "routine", and thats what I love about it. Each day represents new challenges to conquer with new workouts. P90x preaches muscle confusion, and switches every 30 days or so, but its still the same dvd's and easy to get bored with em

3. Hard to Scale - I know this is a hard concept to grasp, but not everyone is at the same fitness level. The same workout doesn't necessarily work for two different people, much less the millions that have bought into P90x / Insanity / whatever. I almost never do the 'prescribed' workout because I'm not there yet, and I love that I can scale down the workouts. P90x's version of scaling is telling you to use a chair on your pullups, but very rarely gives you any advice on the other workouts.

4. Very easy to injure yourself - This is actually my biggest fear of people doing workout dvd's, the risk of injury. Without proper form, its very easy to hurt yourself, and pretty badly at that. I know Tony gives you the proper techniques on how to do the lifts, but without someone watching you its very easy to lose form especially in the later rounds.

5. Coaches - This actually should be reason 1. My coaches have been without a doubt a godsend in helping me achieve my fitness goals. They push me to fight for every last rep, and make sure that every rep counts, there's no cheating with them. They also make sure I'm doing the appropriate weight and since I'm new (the newest actually), pay special attention to me to make sure my form is solid. I like to use them as my first resource for questions about recovery drinks (progenics and advocare were their recommendations), and they're all down to earth fun people who are the exact type of people I would be scared to piss off in a bar. Charlie especially. Sometimes I can even make them laugh.

6. Intensity - I'll be brief with this, but in no way shape or form was I pushing myself hard enough when attempting P90x. I didn't fight for it. Maybe that's just me, but I'm sure many people struggle with pushing themselves extra when they're working out alone in their living room.

7. Community - One of the reasons I enjoy crossfit is the people I've met in such a short time. When I used to go 24 hour fitness, I would show up, talk to nobody, workout, then leave. That is not what happens here, in fact most people end up making good friends, its like pledging a fraternity (not that I would know anything about that, I'm just assuming), but when you fight, bleed, sweat, and really bust it together, people just come together. Its a great feeling knowing that everyone wants everyone to do and perform their best. I was going to comment about "such a diverse group of people" but my crossfit gym is about as diverse as river oaks country club.

Finally, I want to say I think when done properly P90x is a great workout, it just wasn't for me. Yes I know this was one sided and completely biased towards crossfit, but what can I say, I'm clearly a believer.

Todays WOD:

Warm up:

10 Handstand Pushups

20 Pistols (10 per leg, google it)

15 Sit Ups

Main WOD:

AMRAP 7 Minutes:

3 Muscle Ups (HEAVILY scaled)

7 Box Jumps

9 Push press with bar (65 lbs)

Rest for 3 Minutes

AMRAP 7 Minutes:

7 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (SDHP) (65 lbs)

9 Knees to elbows while hanging

11 Double Unders

This workout was a sprint workout, in that you only had a short amount of time to knock out as much as possible. My "muscle ups" were a joke, even to the point I was pretty much using only my legs (an actual muscle up is all arms), and my double unders still need a lot of work. I was proud of my workout today because I pushed it through to the very end and made every rep count. I'm a notorious clock watcher and will sometimes just stop with 10 seconds left if I finish an exercise and don't wanna knock out at least 2 reps of another. Twice today when Andrew yelled out "30 seconds" I was on the first exercise of the routine, and both times powered my way through multiple reps of the last exercise in the routine.

Final Results:

AMRAP 1: 5+14

AMRAP 2: 4 + 11

What exactly do you eat?

I think one of the most intimidating things is when I run into people who read this, mainly because the pressure to "be fit" is suddenly 10 fold. Also, I'm still debating which is a more awkward opening statement to me "so how's crossfit going?", which seems harmless but then I have the whole thought of "WHAT CAN'T YOU TELL I LOOK GREAT?" thing running through my head, or "wow how much weight have you lost??" which brings up the "WAS I REALLY THAT FAT BEFORE?". It's really a no win proposition, but I am thankful for each and every one of you that puts up with this thing and hope to make it entertaining (what that means is there is a 100% chance that my blog will turn into some pop culture analysis humor at the topwith a workout sprinkled in at the bottom, I'm sure of it).

Since today was an off day, I've decided I'm going to start the process of answering my favorite question: "umm so what exactly do you eat?"

Tonight I faced my first group situation at a dinner party where I had to make choices that the rest of the group didn't understand. The menu consisted of mainly italian fare, lasagna and make your own pizzas, some stromboli, all of which is strictly off limits while I'm attempting to rid my body of gluten. I got a lot of people asking me how tempted I was to eat the pizza, and I can honestly say I wasn't at all. I didn't believe the books I read and other people I've talked to who assured me the cravings would pass, but I now understand that they absolutely pass. I don't crave bread anymore, the pizza didn't look appetizing at all (though I'm certain it was delicious to other people, thats not a knock on Wes dinner party skills), even though nobody believed me that I wasn't sooooooooo tempted by it. If you really want to tempt me (everyone is now paying attention I'm sure), then you gotta pull out the desserts. If I'm going to cheat, I want to cheat with cheese and or a warm brownie with ice cream (or something of that nature). Thankfully I knew the menu coming in and prepared this dish at home:

Its a dish called Puerto Rican Beef, and the recipe is adapted from everydaypaleo.com (basically I used her exact recipe just left out the olives, but it does allow me to say fancy things like "I adapted this recipe")

First I went to central market and found some grass fed beef. I could go into a huge long rant (some people at dinner heard it, I know, I'm turning into THAT guy) about the advantages of grass fed beef versus grain fed beef, but I'll save that for later. Basically grass fed beef is much healthier for you, also bought some spices (ground cumin and turmeric), bell peppers, onions, and kale. In one pan I sauteed the onions and the peppers until they were deliciously caramelized , while browning the beef in another pan. Once the beef was browned I dumped the onion / pepper mix into the beef pot, added the spices and then added the kale, continuing cooking until the kale leaves were wilted. EverydayPaleo recommends serving with mashed sweet potato, which I declined to make (however sweet potatoes are very good).

This recipe is tasty, and I keeps well in the fridge allowing me to make a whole lot at once, then eat it gradually over the next 3 or 4 meals (making it cost effective at the same time). I'll try to keep an accurate count of the money I spend on food (other than rent, its my highest expense and its not even close) to show how cheap cooking for yourself can be (and it doesn't have to be ramen noodles or pb&j). Also anyone that reads this and is interested in cooking up a storm, I really enjoy cooking and making new recipes so come on over and lets get cookin.

WOD - 5.17.2011 Snatches and such

A little late typing this up so it might not be very lengthy (which means it'll most likely be the longest yet). I brought my gloves and was immediately accosted by Charlie:

"who are those made by? vagisil?" Point taken, gloves are the ultimate sign of weakness. I tried a few pullups with the gloves on and realized they really hurt my grip, even though bare hands is extremely painful right now, so hopefully they'll just toughen up and form calluses that wont open (maybe thats TMI (that was an abbreviation for too much information)).

Some of the coaches are training for the regional team games, I don't really know what that means but it means they compete in some sort of crossfit workout against other elite athletes, for some reason I wasn't asked to be on the team. They were doing their workout while we were doing ours and Charlie was doing 235 on thrusters (an inhumane amount of weight) and as he slammed the weight down after missing his last rep I made sure to offer him the use of my gloves cause it looked like he needed them.

Warm up:

200m run

15 T2B (toes to bar)

15 pushups

15 OHS (overhead squat) with pvc pipe

15 lunges with bar (per leg)

15 kettlebell swings (53 lbs)

Yes that was quite the "warmup".

Main WOD:

10 Snatches

Row as fast / far as possible in 30 seconds (essentially a sprint row)

rest 1 min

3x

Cool Down:

200m run

20 burpees

I didn't know what a snatch was until I got there and had some of the coaches teaching me the form. It's hard to picture, essentially starts off like a power clean but the weight ends up over your head with your arms locked out. For this workout the prescribed weights were 65lbs/95lbs, but naturally as this is another form based exercise Andrew (my T/TH coach) had me doing 45lbs to master the form (which still needs improvement). The weight was too light, as I walked over to another persons bar after the workout and snatched 65lbs pretty easily. I guess this means I'll be moving up in weight next time snatches show up on the WOD.

Also while talking to a guy in my class after the workout (it's fun completing a workout and then watching the next class while I gather myself) I made up a fictitious competition between me and my roommate about who can get into better shape. 1) There is no competition and 2) how would that even be determined? Who can run the farthest? Most pullups? A decathlon? However, if he happens to read this I'm willing to start a challenge as further motivation.

WOD - 5.16.2011 - Having the correct attitude

First things first, I weighed 174.6 today (next weigh in will be sunday night), which is right on pace to average 1.5 to 2 lbs a week in weight loss. Most people will initially lose 5 maybe even as much as 10lbs (though thats an extreme) in the first week, but as your body adapts to less calories and better foods a general consensus among health professionals is 2 lbs a week is about what you should be hoping for. Once again, I must reiterate that weight is just a number, the real number that you (and I am currently) should be looking to improve is BMI or body mass index. Basically this is what % of your body is fat. My goal is to get that number under 10%, currently I have no idea what I am but I believe I started somewhere near 18%.

There's always a point in everyones life (probably once a week) where for some unknown reason they just don't have "it", wether it be energy or just can't perform a task up to their usual standards. Today was the first time in my short crossfit career where I knew right when I got to the gym that I didn't have "it", I just didn't feel like I had the energy, proper intensity, or the attitude necessary to do my best. This could be my body wanting more rest since I added a saturday workout, or maybe it was just one of those days. Either way it made this WOD about 100x tougher as I was not only battling a difficult workout, I was also battling my poor mindset from the start.

Warmup:

200m run

15 Air squats (sometimes I call these body squats, essentially its just a squat with no weight on your back, the key as always is to get as deep as possible)

15 pushups

15 situps

15 back extensions

Main WOD:

20 Minutes AMRAP:

5 C2B pullups (chest to bar)

10 Wall Balls

15 Kettlebell Swings (53lbs)

This was a big day for me because I mentioned in previous posts that I'm no longer using the assistance band on my pullups AND I had to go up in weight on my wall balls to a 20lb medicine ball (up from 16lb, and yes that 4lbs makes a world of difference). A wall ball exercise is performed with a giant medicine ball (slightly smaller than a beach ball), take the medicine ball in your hands, perform a squat and at the top of your squat throw (push) the ball into the air at target about 10 feet in the air (the target is marked, and I don't know the exact height).

So it's safe to say between the no-aid pullups and going up in weight on wall balls, I was exhausted by the end of round 2. On round 3, I managed to open up a few calluses on my left hand from the pullups that made it extremely painful to grip the bar. (Side note: I always wondered why people where workout gloves at the gym because movements like bench press and bicep curls won't shred your hands, well now I know and yours truly will be sporting gloves) Gripping the pullup bar was very painful, and it got to the point I could only knock out 1 and then drop (both from being tired and from rubbing my skin raw), then hop back on and knock another one out. Also Charlie was really on to me about my form on Kettlebell swings, making sure each and every rep was perfect, which is good for me but everytime he was defeating everytime he said "no rep", meaning that rep didn't count.

All in all I completed 5 rounds and 5 pullups, so 5+5. Not my best effort as I was really gassed and taking too many rest breaks to catch my breath, but I am pleased that I moved up in two different exercises. The big lesson I'm taking away from this workout (besides the fact I'll be wearing gloves like a champ) is that the correct attitude means everything, telling yourself that you're going to fight through the adversity, which in my case was pain and lack of energy. I think its important to get a good workout in, or to stay on top of your diet even when "you're not feeling it", because every little thing adds up (clearly I'm practicing my motivational writing for when I land my book deal).

Paleo Trail Mix and Week in review

After checking my blog stats, my readership hit a sharp decline (see also: falling off a cliff) over the weekend, so I'm not exactly sure how it's going to survive when I start Madams: Insider and charging a monthly subscription for it. Also, I've changed the comments section so now there is no "logging in" and comments can be left anonymously, I'm hoping this will spur discussion or for people to make fun of me. Either way it's there for you if you need it.

Sundays for the most part will always be off days for me, they are meant for sleeping in, eating brunch (my favorite meal), getting groceries (which today I was very european and walked to the grocery store, and walked back bags in tow), playing ultimate frisbee (that can be considered my exercise) and occasionally playing bass for the greatest worship band on 14th street, the Grace Bible Church worship band (5 and 6:30 services).

I think I'll spend Sunday posts as a week in review and try to set goals for the upcoming week. If I had to give advice to anyone wanting to being a workout plan (and this will probably be its own post in the coming days) it's to set manageable tangible goals. Also, I'm going to start posting more about foods I eat and things I've been cooking. This will serve two purposes, one to provide examples of ways to eat healthy (or at least my idea of healthy) without breaking the bank, and two (and most importantly), to score points with the ladiezzz that read this. So it's your lucky day if you're reading this at work and trying to kill time, because I'm giving you both of those things in this one.

Today I made some paleo trail mix to help me with healthy snacking. Making your own trail mix (not near as hard as it sounds, if it even sounds hard at all, which now that I think about it, it doesn't) is great because it is much cheaper than the pre-made stuff, and has the added bonus of being able to pick and choose everything you like without having to dodge the items you don't. I got this idea from a book I purchased, Everyday Paleo (www.everydaypaleo.com) which has fantastic recipes and ideas from someone who did what I'm doing. She blogged about her and her family's foray in paleo living and fitness, only she did it after that fact and I'm doing it concurrently.

To make this trail mix I bought the following items:

-Almonds

-Pecans

-Cashews

-dried blueberries

-dried cranberries

mixed them together (use more nuts and less of the berries for sugar reasons) and voila, two whole containers of deliciousness. The main problem I encountered was that the only dried cranberries offered at Randalls had sugar added, some I'm biting the bullet on that. This trailmix is great for you because the nuts are a source of good fats, and blueberries are just an amazing superfood. Now one thing I need to add, if you're anything like me and there's an open container (nuts, cheeze itz (esp white cheddar), oreos, whatever) of food near me, I'll sit and mindlessly nibble all day. This trail mix won't give you much benefit if you pound a whole container (I made 2 pint sized containers) in one sitting. It's meant for curbing hunger cravings imbetween meals at work, or right when you get home so you avoid killing a bag of chips or something, or worse ending up in the drive through at mcdonalds like half of houston apparently does. So just remember to practice moderation when eating this.

Week in Review:

I felt like my workouts are definitely improving, and hope to build upon saturdays success, though I take that victory with a grain of salt because I am definitely bottom of the barrel in my regular classes.

I ate very well this week, my only cheats were 4 drinks throughout the week, and at Ruggles Green I ordered the spicy shrimp tacos which had cheese on them, and I didn't bother getting them without the cheese. They were sooo good that I don't feel bad at all, life's too short to not eat cheese at all. Also I completely messed up by snacking on teriyaki beef jerky throughout the week. Beef Jerky is actually a great paleo snack, just not the teriyaki kind because soy (the main component of teriyaki sauce) has gluten in it, so I still can't claim to be gluten free because of 5 oz of teriyaki soaked beef jerky.

My goals for this week including dropping 1.5 lbs of actual fat (2 lbs of fat is about the healthiest speed one can expect to drop weight after the initial surge), to attend and complete every workout, and to make one recipe from the everyday paleo book and document it (I already have all the ingredients, should be a piece of cake).

Also from here on out, I'll start weighing myself every sunday night right before my week in review post, because that makes the most sense.

Saturday Free WOD

I randomly looked through my "followers", which to be honest I'm not sure if that means you've added me to your google reader or if there's some other mechanism for following me (besides twitter, and you know, life) and noticed that one of my buddies from high school who now is an officer in the marines and is hopefully moving to Houston this summer to train marines heading to bootcamp follows me. This is both an honor and a curse, as I'm sure he is laughing at what I call "working hard", so now he can read this and know I am seeking his approval. I also hope to show up to one of his workouts to see where I stand, all in due time.

Every Saturday (well most every) Pinup Crossfit (the gym I will call my own starting in June) holds a free workout at 9am. It's a great way to come experience what I have come to love with the guidance of one of the coaches to make sure you don't kill yourself, also when I know i'm going (such as when I arrange for friends to come so I know have to attend) it keeps me in check on Friday nights, which I discovered that Hans Bier Haus, a Houston bar with supposedly the best selection of beer in the city does not carry any gluten free beers. Very disappointing, but I had a glass of wine and called it a night (its all about making those little choices, and switching wine for beer to keep myself gluten free was one of those). All are welcome to come, even if you haven't set foot in a gym in years (and frankly, I might never set foot in a traditional gym ever again).

This week my friend Hart who has been trying to replicate crossfit workouts at home decided to show up and give it whirl. The Saturday WODs are more fitness endurance based, without any of the technical lifts that require great form (what a nightmare for someone to show up having never done a power clean or snatch before and being thrown into the fire), but will still give you a great workout that will leave you exhausted.

Warmup:

20 Body Squats

20 Situps

20 Mountain Climbers

Main WOD (with a partner):

1200m run

64 kb swings (53lbs / 35lbs) <-- this is the prescribed weight for men / women

64 pushups

900m run

42 kb swings

42 pushups

600m run

22 kb swings

22 pushups

The rules of this WOD, both partners had to run together, and then divide up the swings and pushups between them. For instance, partner 1 could do 30 swings and partner 2 do 34, or any combination. For his first time doing full American kettlebell swings (over your head whereas many people perform half swings where they lift to about face level) Hart performed really well. We started off by crushing the run, lapping many of the groups and maintained a great pace on the kb swings and the pushups. I really need to work on my pushup endurance, as I was shot after the first set, but the best thing about partner workouts is having a partner to push you through. All in all we did really well and placed 1st (among the guy teams) with a time of 23:32 doing the workout as prescribed (my first one to not scale!).

There was a team of girls that came out of nowhere to beat us by about 20 seconds, though I THINK (cannot confirm) they were doing their pushups at the same time (teams were supposed to perform the exercises one at a time, so one partner knocked out as many pushups as possible while the other rested then switch), because our initial lead after the run on every group seemed insurmountable, but I commend them none the less as this was a particularly tough WOD (especially since we were pushing to win). The runs were much longer than what I was used to and lifting that kettlebell started to feel like 100lbs in my hand by the 3rd set. I was absolutely exhausted, but feels great to know I've already knocked out my workout this weekend and can relax the rest of the weekend.

A word on recovery

Fridays are another "off" day at least until I start my m/t/th/f schedule. One side effect of driving a vehicle that only gets 12.1 mpg is that I try to drive as little as possible (this is where you say "no duh") with gas prices soaring, so I have really expanded my radius of what I consider to be "walking distance". Last night I walked over to whole foods to eat, whereas I would have driven if this were 3 months ago. So even on my off days I try to get some exercise in, but its important to give your body recovery time. Granted, there's a line between "recovery time" and "taking 4 days off" that I wasn't balancing very well when my idea of getting into shape consisted of running 3 miles when only the perfect conditions presented themselves.

Going along the lines of recovery, its also very important to eat protein within an hour of completing a vigorous workout. I usually down a muscle milk (21g of protein, very little sugar, no dairy despite the name, and tastes good to boot) because of the protein and the recovery amino acids. I haven't been able to research different recovery drinks, but I am looking into myoplex purely because of the commercial with Brady Quinn slamming one home and proclaiming "Now I'm done." I'll go in depth in a post down the line, but basically your muscles are starving for nourishment and ripe for growth within that first hour post workout. So my non-phd-driven advice, is to feed those muscles with some good protein (either protein shake, recovery drink, or just doing it the old fashioned away and eating some meat).

Free workout saturday

For anyone that's interested in trying out crossfit, this (and most saturdays) there is a free workout at Pinup Crossfit at 9am. Its a great way to come experience an actual crossfit gym and get a workout with an actual coach.

WOD 5.12.11

I've been having a lot of trouble recently with blogger, as it always seems to be down for the dreaded word "maintenance". The worst place to hear this word is at the airport, but I digress. This downtime really gets me when I've got something profound to say only to find that the entire website is down and I can't even draft a post. I assure you, its not because I'm getting tired of this blog already, far from it actually!

Another item that was brought to my attention was that I don't explain exercises or workouts enough. When I originally started this, I was writing from the perspective that my audience was my friend in Austin who already loves all things crossfit and knows all the terminology.  I'll try to do better and explain things better, but as always I enjoy the questions people have been asking me, and the support people have been blessing me with.

Todays WOD (workout of the day) was a strength WOD

Warm up:

400m run
30 box jumps
30 double unders
50 situps
30 back extensions

WOD:

1-1-1 MAX
Back Squats
Power Cleans

I'm not sure if you can tell based on excerises, but that warmup felt more like an actual workout. The back extensions were the hardest in my opinion, mainly because in all my days of working out I can safely say I neglected back extensions and those associated muscles about 99.98% of the time. The main wod was about finding your max on power cleans and back squats, which admittedly finding my max on anything isn't something that gets me excited. Sure its a great way to guage progress, and seeing how I had never officially maxed on these exercises, I was going to set a new PR (personal record). I always seem to lack the intensity needed to find my true max, as I am admittedly afraid of what will happen if I picked a weight too heavy to squat and had to escape it (escaping a squat is both exciting and terrifying, my partner for the day had to escape, since we use bumpers (weight plates designed to bounce and can be dropped without damaging everything) you just lean back and let gravity pull the weight to the floor as you then move forward away from the falling barbell) she let it slam and got out of the way.

I however need to learn how to push myself harder and not be afraid of failure. The only way to get stronger, faster, better is to continuously push myself with uncomfortable weights. That was the big lesson I learned today.

And now for the results:

Powerclean - 135
Back Squat - 235

I felt good about the powercleans as I was struggling with 95lbs just last month. I'm still working on my form with heavier weights, as I still rely too much on arm strength and not using my hips enough. The back squats I'm just okay with, it was my first time to go that heavy since high school, but I feel like I left something on the table. I didn't go hard enough to fail.

The 80/20 Rule

A big thank you to all the encouragement I've received in the last few days about this blog. Its made aware of a few things: 1) that my writing is sloppy and I make careless mistakes (which is unfortunate as I'm usually a stickler for syntax) and 2) If I ever feel like falling off the wagon and just quitting, that I now have such an online following (I think at least 10 people!) that I now feel I can't quit just for them. There will be days I just don't feel like working out and eating right, but for the most part I feel the pressure to maintain with it, and thats a good thing.

Wednesdays are my off days, even when I move to 4 days a week they will still be my mid week day of rest. This rest was much needed as I was sore all day in my shoulders (yes I understand the irony of being sore the day after posting about how I wasn't sore, but overhead squats will do that to you) and needed to recharge for what promises to be a grueling workout thursday.

So while I can't promise I will maintain this one post a day stint I'm on, I'm going to try and use my off days to post about other fitness related topics I've been researching. Once again if anyone accidentally stumbles upon this and has no clue who I am, let me repeat: I AM NOT A DOCTOR, I AM NOT A TRAINER, I AM NOT A NUTRITIONIST, always consult a physician before beginning an exercise program (basically im saying DON'T SUE ME!). I'm just an average person, not fat, not skinny, not particularly strong trying to get in shape and giving my own opinions on whats working in my life. Basically I'm my own guinea pig, and that can be a good thing for you. If you happen to be a doctor, (or in my readership case, a med school student) and believe im doing something stupid and killing myself, you have my permission to let me know.

I'm a firm believer of the 80/20 theory. In business, it generally means 20% of the customers use 80% of the resources (i.e. cell phone data useage), or in the world terms roughly 80% of the worlds wealth is held by the worlds top 20% (That may be a USA only statistic). How I'm applying this to fitness, is getting in shape is 20% exercise and 80% diet (once again I have no research to back this up, though I think I've read this before). My crossfit coaches preach proper diets to us constantly, as a good workout can be ruined by margs later that night, or a big heaping plate of lasagna, etc, etc. As I mentioned in the first post, I wasn't going to give a half effort to getting into shape, not while I see my roommate get ever so close to achieving his goal of dunking a basketball. Some of my friends have super metabolism, and can seemingly eat anything they want and stay incredibly lean, or even what I deem one of the best problems ever and have trouble "putting on weight". I assure you I am not one of those people. I feel like if I even look at a bowl of ice cream I put on 5lbs on the spot, so I have to be much more diligent about my diet than others. I'm going to try and post about different dietary aspects that I study throughout this experiment.

For about the past month I've made some changes to my diet which include the following:

1. Eat as paleo as possible - It would be difficult to explain it all and keep this post a readable length, there are plenty of places to research it on the internet. It's also the diet that the crossfit coaches have been recommending.

2. No more sodas - If anyone knows me, they know I could put away A LOT of diet soda. I was regularly drinking 50-64oz of that deliciousness per day, and racking up quite the monthly bill (when you factor getting a soda everytime I went out to eat, one from the vending machine per work day, I estimate I was spending $60 to $70 a month on soda alone). Now I only drink water, the occasional glass of almond milk or coconut milk, fresh squeezed orange juice (got to watch a lot of juices, you might think you're being healthy by drinking juice but most are LOADED with sugar). The only soda I drink is when its mixed with whiskey. This change had the most immediate noticeable impact when I was playing with an indoor soccer team, just two weeks of no soda and I could run much longer and harder in games than usual without changing anything else up about my diet. Plus that savings is helping to pay for my crossfit membership.

3. No More Gluten - This one was tough at first, because gluten is in EVERYTHING. The more and more I've been reading about gluten the more I want to stay away from it. The bonus to staying away from gluten is, it really helps me stay away from sugar at the same time, as most desserts and "sweets" contain gluten, now if the wonderful bakers from Juleens ever create a gluten free cakeball I am in some serious trouble. Basically I dont eat breads / flour based items any more, though I'm still a sucker for saturday / sunday brunch french toast (no I dont have it every weekend by any means, but in my version of Heaven french toast is definitely involved). In the book I'm reading "Everyday Paleo", the author says "its okay to cheat every once in a while, just not with gluten". The hardest part for me is saying NO to chips and salsa at mexican restaurants and hoping nobody orders queso. I know what you're saying to yourself, "No way could I give up carbs!", and I will say you're not (you get carbs through fruit), or "I would miss breads too much", and to that I say, "go two weeks without them and you won't even miss them". That sounds easy, but its true, I don't crave breads or simple carbs anymore (unless its chips and queso).

4. No more dairy - This started before paleo when I was reading books like "The Omnivores Delimma". You can call me a tree hugging hippy (fyi: I work for an oil company), but I'm very much leery of the food pyramid thats been shoved down our throats by the FDA. Farmer Lobbyists and other Pro Farmers group pay lots of money to make sure that thing tells us to eat the foods the benefit the farmers wallets the most (i.e. potatoes, corn), and not whats actually nutritious. Milk is one of those things that isn't necessarily as good for us as it seems, and coincidentally is a cash cow for farmers. Anyway I only buy almond milk and coconut milk as substitutes and actually really like it. The hardest thing for me to give up on a regular basis was cheese, and it's still one of my favorite ways to cheat.

5. No fast food - This seems like a no brainer. Its almost impossible to get any nutrients out of fast food, even the salads are terrible for you. It makes me sick when I drive home and see the double drive through at mcdonalds 15 cars deep at 5 in the afternoon. Just watch "Super Size Me" (available on netflix streaming).

6. Limit alcohol consumption - I know this is the least fun of the bunch. Its admittedly tough to go out with friends during the week and stick to water (especially now that I know of a place with $2.50 wells, but I digress), and sometimes I slip up and get a drink. The weekends I'm a little bit looser and will allow myself a couple of drinks. The problem with alcohol, besides being loaded with calories (or gluten if we're talking about beer), is that I end up getting really hungry and will crush any sort of food put in front of me (usually food that doesn't conform to my previous rules). The best part between cutting out non water drinks (mostly), is that I almost save the amount of my crossfit membership each month, it pays for itself!

Am I 100% perfect? Absolutely not. Just like christianity, perfection might be a goal but isn't attainable. I'm just trying everyday to follow this dietary set of rules, which I'm always tweaking. If I fall off the wagon, I just take it in stride and get back on it rather than wallow in guilt (it's like that freedom in Christ through grace concept). The important thing to think about when trying to eat healthy is to tackle each meal each day as small choices to a larger picture. Yes it gets overwhelming to think "Oh my no gluten for a month!", whereas I can sit at lunch and not eat the bread or eat my fajitas without the tortillas (or cheese, or sour cream). If you have any questions about what I'm doing please feel free to ask me as I love talking about this (it helps me stay motivated as well).

WOD - 5.10.2011

It was a big debut for the blog, I increased my followers 6 fold. Yes that means I have 6 loyal readers (and hopefully some others who will check back in from time to time). I'm glad so many people are supporting my endeavor. As I mentioned, I'm hoping that this can serve as a motivational tool for others that are trying to get into shape. Also I'm hoping to score a book deal and become stupid wealthy, allowing me to retire.

I'm finally over being sore everyday, which is nice because my current schedule is M/T/Th. In June I think I'm going to bump it up to M/T/Th/F with some saturdays sprinkled in. It took me about a month to get over being sore EVERYDAY, so please don't let soreness derail your workout plans.

Todays warmup:

5 Wall climbs

12 Slamballs

12 Pushups

12 Sit ups on the back extension rack, basically sit ups with a lot more range of motion

12 Lunges with bar on back

Yes the warm up does get the blood moving, and the wall climbs proved difficult. Basically you're in pushup position with your feet against a wall, then proceed to walk up the wall and walk your hands back towards the wall maintaining your plank. Touch your stomach to the wall (essentially you're in a handstand now) and that drop down.

Main WOD:

"Nancy"

5 Rounds of:

400m Run

15 OHS (65/95lbs)

Some workouts in crossfit have official names, usually the names of girls. In this case the workout is named "Nancy", and she is a cruel mistress. There are certain exercises that really push the limits. Overhead Squats (OHS) are one of those exercises. My form is still such that I have to use extremely low weight, until I improve the strength in my core and legs, and also improve my flexibility. Today I only did a 25lb bar, which yes is less weight than any of the girls in my class (a funny joke I had with another guy who's only 4 months in (i'm only 3 weeks in) is that first we have to catch the girls before we can dream of catching the guys), and it still worked me.

I was proud that I was easily the fastest on the 400's, which is hilarious because I'm not fast at all (ask anyone I went to college with). I think because I was doing such a low weight on the squats I didn't tax myself as much as the other guys, plus my usual mindset right now is the running portions of workouts are where I can compete or make up time because my strength isn't much to blog about.

My official "Nancy" time: 14:22

Only 1 Follower

Right now I only have one follower, but thats all i need.

WOD - 5.9.2011

First, i'm going to weigh myself every monday and only monday. 176.6 lbs.

Todays WOD was a killer.

Warmup:

10 Dead hang Pullups

15 Kettlebell swings (53lbs)

15 air squats

15 back extensions

400m run

Its funny how crossfit warmups are more work than what I used to put in when I went to the gym by myself.

WOD:

20 Minutes AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)

5 Handstand pushups

10 Deadlifts 155/225

15 Double Unders

I had scaled the handstand pushups using a box, and they were still difficult. Watching some of the people knock em out was absolutely inspiring, and just the motivation I need to keep it up. The double unders while tough, have a lot of skill involved that slowed me down. Charlie (my monday coach) didn't let us scale with singles, so the double unders REALLY slowed me down, but it was good because I HAD to learn how to do them. I think the most I did in a row was 5, but by the end I was finally figuring them out. For the deadlifts I used 155, (I don't think there's a single workout I've done the prescribed weight yet, and not ashamed at all) while that weight felt light in the beginning, around set 2 i was feeling it.

All in all I completed 5 rounds + 16, which means I finished 5 complete rounds, and had completed the handstand pushups , deadlifts, and 1 double under of the fifth round.

In other news had the following conversation with Charlie:

"When should I get off the bands for pullups?"

"As soon as you can do 1"

"just 1?"

"yep. Gotta fight for it".

looks like I'm getting off the band. He did concede that if a WOD had something like 100 pullups in it that I could use the band once i couldn't complete them anymore. Anyways I'm pumped because just getting some warmup kips in I knocked out 5 without even trying. 5 pullups would've had me spent for the rest my workout only a month ago.

Also while warming pre warmup, I randomly attempted a T2B, which is: while hanging from a pullup bar, touch your toes to the bar. When I went to my first crossfit workout in early march, there were 50 of those in the workout. I could complete 0. I couldn't even get my toes close, it turned into knee raises. Today, I touched the bar with my toes on the first try.

Baseline

Its hard to track progress if I don't post my beginning numbers, also i just completed my 2nd week so I'm still getting some baseline numbers on certain exercises, and some movements will be very low weight until I get more comfortable performing the exercise.

Weight: 178lbs (to be fair its currently May 5th, I start basic CF March 22nd and am already down 10lbs) By the way, this is going to be a post here in the near future, but I hate the idea of "weight", its just a number and has no bearing on if you're healthy or not.

Kb Swing - 53lb

Pullups - 8 in a row. Pullups will always be my big test, because i've always struggled with them especially pull up endurance. On long pullup workouts, I still scale with a band.

Overhead Squats - 25 lb bar. This is the most humbling exercise, but its good to be humbled.

Power Cleans - 85lbs, not a max but my 10 rep weight.

"Helen" - 10:07. This is a benchmark exercise of 3 rounds: 4oom run, 21 Kb swings , 12 pullups. The pullups were very assisted (see jumping from a box).

Thrusters - 65 lbs rep weight*

Front Squat - 65 lbs rep weight*

*for both thrusters and front squats, the weight is a bit low as I'm working on form over sheer weight.

Push Press - 125lb

Deadlift - 135lb rep, this was performed in basic and we haven't done it since. The rep weight will probably go higher next WOD that has deadlift.

Wall Balls - 16lb medicine ball

Why this Blog?

Well first things first, I'm finally excited to have a blog with a theme so I know exactly what to post about. The premise behind this blog is to do a couple things, first to give myself some online accountability while i tackle this whole "crossfit" thing. Secondly, I'm hoping people can stumble upon this and realize that I'm actually pretty average, and that it is possible to work hard and get healthy.

This all started because of a culmination of many reasons. My roommate made it his new years resolution to dunk a basketball, and has worked really hard at it. I've had multiple friends get engaged and begin the "LGN" diet (which I think being LGN would help me get engaged in the first place), and finally I was tired of looking at pictures of me and thinking "ooooh bad angle" or "dang am I really that fat?" I was tired of dwindling energy levels, of always being an "ok" athlete during sports, of not being strong enough, or fast enough, and of feeling lethargic. Basically I was tired of being average.

For a solid year my co worker was talking to me about this gym he joined, a crossfit gym about 5 minutes down from work. I of course gave the old excuses that everyone gives, "i'm already a member at a gym" and "its too expensive", etc etc. Yes, I was going to the gym after work, but I was completely wasting my time. Having a gym membership does not equate to hard work, it doesn't get you to gut out those extra reps when you're too tired to see clearly. After a few months I realized that what I was doing was a complete waste of time, and decided to take another look at this crossfit thing.

I decided that if I was going to do it, I was going to be fanatical about it, and truly buy in to what they were teaching. I bought books on paleo living, learning things like "gluten is bad for your body" and joined Bayou City Crossfit. Part of "being fanatical" means that I don't make excuses and miss any sessions, and that I will post my results online.

Like I said in the beginning, I'm hoping this blog can inspire me to work harder, and help me make the tough decisions like not eating chips and queso at mexican food restaurants.

Anyways, happy reading.