Ups and Downs

First things first, I managed a ONE ARMED pull up today!

Its been over 2 weeks since my last post, but I assure you I didn't quit fitness / crossfit or my quest to be as healthy as possible. Over the past few weeks there have been a few changes, namely I changed up my living situation (moving before a crossfit workout is the worst), meaning my computer was packed up into a few a boxes (I have a desktop, a decision I made after realizing I'm not in college and don't need to do "study" at coffee shops, therefor made no sense to pay the money for a laptop when for half the price I could get a mac mini (its the size of a sandwich people!)), naturally impeding my ability to post here.

I've stopped weighing myself, which is a good thing (last time I weighed myself I was 167) because it's very hard for me to talk about the dangers of getting obsessed with a number instead of how you look and feel, and then proceed to post my weight every week.

I've been working out at pinup crossfit under the coaching of Charlie and Andrew since the beginning of April. For about 15 weeks (just counted, didn't count the first 2 weeks since I only made it once a week) I've been dedicated to crossfit, and for about 11 of those weeks fully dedicated to the paleo diet and can say the results have helped me change my life (ask my roommate, he rolls his eyes when people ask me about it because he's heard me talk about it so much and is tired of my gluten-free-ness). During those weeks I've lost about 22 lbs (on the scale, but added muscle weight so the total change is probably closer to 26-28 lbs), felt my energy levels shoot through the roof, and have improved my fitness / health in just about every facet. Every week was fun because I was constantly improving, never hitting the "wall" or "plateauing" that many life long exercisers talk about.

Then these past two weeks happened (weird, corresponding with my blog absence, not a coincidence I'm sure). I've definitely been in a "valley" or a "down" in terms of my performance. I've been making an effort to not "scale" (meaning change the workouts to make them easier, generally achieved by using lighter weights than prescribed) because I want to get stronger. However for whatever reason my body wasn't recovering as fast as usual (signs of maybe working out too much?) and I was struggling to finish some of the workouts.

To combat this I've increased my eating (while keeping a certain watch on my waistline), mainly by adding in sweet potato on days I'm working out as a pre-workout snack. The benefits of eating sweet potato before workouts are numerous, I suggest you research them for yourself. Also when I say 'I eat all the time', I mean from waking up till I finish my dinner (usually by 730 pm) I go no longer than 3 hours between "meals".

Generally my meals look like this:

6:30 am - Breakfast - scrambled eggs with sauteed onions / peppers

9:00 am - Protein Shake

11:15 am - Grilled Chicken Breast w/ vegetables (broccoli / onions / peppers / celery that I've sauteed up (I make large containers early in the week so that all I have to do is heat up smaller portions throughout the week)), sometimes a spoonful of cashew butter or almond butter

3:00pm - Protein Shake #2 (okay so I go a little longer between these meals, I'm still trying to find the sweet spot, might move this to 2:30)

4:15 - sweet potato (not a whole sweet potato, I make a large container of sweet potato puree and then portion out some on a plate, heat and eat)

5:00 - Crossfit Workout

6:00 (immediately after) - Recovery Shake

7:30 (not a set time) - Generally Same as my 11:15 am meal

Yes I know this meal plan makes me sound like a robot, and for the most part right now I am. The added sweet potato has really been helping with renewed energy during my workouts (I've only had thursday and fridays workout to test it), but the real important lesson I've learned is patience.

My problem with my recent struggles, is that I was enjoying my rocketing pace and didn't give one notion to the fact that it couldn't last. I was worried that I was no longer improving and wasn't seeing results. Yesterdays workout had overhead squats (I have a love / hate relationship with OHS) and I repped out 15 at 65lbs. A mere 13 weeks ago I was barely able to do them with 25lbs. In 13 weeks I've not only increased almost 300%, but I'm REPPING it. That's a big deal, and a big improvement.

It really puts things in perspective. Just remember in all of your goals that there will be ups and downs, and that's why it is important to write down where you started, because its easy to lose sight of how much you've improved and get complacent (like in my case).