My July Whole25: Days 8 - 11

I'm really feeling like I'm in the groove now.  I cooked too much food this week and actually had to stick some of that pork in the freezer!  I definitely got more sleep (still could do better) and continued to make working out a priority.

Day 8 - Monday 7/14/14

• Breakfast: Blueberry Muffin Lara Bar
• Lunch: Leftover Crock Pot Beef Stew with a side salad of spring mix, spinach, strawberries, cucumber, avocado, almond slivers, and some balsamic
• Snack: Half of an Apple Streusel Egg Muffin from Practical Paleo right after they came out of the oven! I tried to make Paleo muffins once before and they came out tasting pretty blah.  These were pretty tasty!  The apples made them plenty sweet.  Dave even liked them.
• Dinner: Asian Orange Pan-Seared Scallops from Practical Paleo with Caramelized Brussel Sprouts & Onions from The 21 Day Sugar Detox Cookbook. The scallops came out great!  I had never cooked scallops before, but they were so easy and super delicious.  They were certainly a treat for a Monday.
• Workout: Nope
• Sleep: 7.5 hours, would've been less if I didn't keep snoozing the alarm, really didn't want to get up
• Thoughts:  I went grocery shopping for the week after work.  I didn't spend nearly as much money this week since we had a lot leftover from last week.  Still wasn't exactly cheap with those scallops and my new kombucha habit, but having a base back home certainly helped.

Day 9 - Tuesday 7/15/14

• Breakfast: Coffee, a super sweet peach, and an Apple Streusel Egg Muffin
• Lunch: Leftover Slow Cooker Italian Pork Roast with leftover Caramelized Brussel Sprouts & Onions from The 21 Day Sugar Detox Cookbook and some blueberries
• Dinner: Coconut Chicken Fingers with Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries and lots of red hot
• Workout: 6 am CrossFit - The WOD today was 18 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of:
• 15 toes to bar (hang from bar, swing toes up to bar)
• 12 pendlay row (bent over row - I did 65 lbs)
• 9 bar over burpees (face the bar, drop to the ground, get up, jump over bar).

I completed 4 rounds + 30 reps.  I think I'm finally getting a hang of the kip (swinging motion in between for momentum) for the toes to bar, so that's exciting.  I wasn't anywhere close to doing the Rx weight of 95 lbs for the rows and they were still the hardest part of the workout for me.

• Sleep: 6.25 hours
  
• Thoughts: Had a pity party for myself at lunch when all my coworkers went out for half priced brick oven pizzas.  Life goes on.

Day 10 - Wednesday 7/16/14

• Breakfast: Coffee and an Apple Streusel Egg Muffin
• Lunch: Leftover Crock Pot Beef Stew with leftover Caramelized Brussel Sprouts & Onions from The 21 Day Sugar Detox Cookbook and some blueberries
• Snack: Carrot Cake Lara Bar (flavor I had never tried before, very tasty!)
• Dinner: Leftover Coconut Chicken Fingers with some red hot.  My workout was at 8:15 pm and I wasn't hungry beforehand (probably because of my snack) nor did I want to eat a big meal right before working out.  By the time I got home, I honestly wasn't that hungry and it was 9:30 at night, so I ate 2 chicken fingers and went to bed.

• Workout: My first Barre3 class!

What is Barre3?  As dancers know, the ballet barre is a wonderful prop designed to support the body in both static and dynamic movement leading to long, lean muscles. Barre3 evolves the dancer’s workout by combining the grace of the ballet barre with the wisdom of yoga and the strength of Pilates. Barre3 classes are set to an upbeat soundtrack and follow a vigorous pace moving through a sequence of postures designed to shape and lift the entire body.

My friend Jes found a free class (for new instructor training) and asked me if I wanted to join her.  I few of my favorite bloggers have been in love with Barre classes and since it was free, I was definitely in.  The workout was a lot of basic movements (push ups, lunges, squats, crunches, etc) which you then held midway and pulsed.  The movements were very small, but they definitely had my muscles burning.  During the lunges my legs were shaking uncontrollably!

I feel like I got a good workout, but CrossFit is definitely my passion right now.  It makes my muscles burn and takes care of cardio at the same time (which Barre did not).  The movements in CF are designed to work multiple muscle groups at once, instead of focusing on one specific area at a time.  The classes are always different and there are so many different movements to master (I'm just going to guess that Barre is fairly repetitive, but that's just an assumption).  I also know that lifting heavy is applicable in situations other than the gym, like when I have to drag a bunch of crap across the beach this weekend.  I have some furniture that ain't gonna move itself!

• Sleep: 7.25 hours
• Thoughts: Not much to say, see above.

Day 11 - Thursday 7/17/14

• Breakfast: Cup of coffee, an Apple Streusel Egg Muffin, a small green apple
• Snack: Macadamia nuts from a coworker (that came all the way from Hawaii) - these were tasty and the perfect portion!
• Lunch: Leftover Coconut Chicken Fingers with Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries and red hot, brought my own lunch to a work meeting with free pizza - go me!  Drank another cup of coffee after lunch.
• Dinner:  Spaghetti Squash Bolognese from Practical Paleo
• Workout: 6 am CrossFit - The WOD today was:
• 30 GI Janes (burpee pull ups)
• 400 m run
• 15 shoulder to overhead (I did 65 lbs)
• 800 m run
• 15 shoulder to overhead
• 400 m run
• 30 GI Janes
• For time (25 minute time cap)!

I believe I finished in 20:49.  This WOD wasn't too terrible.  My runs were pretty slow since I used them as the recovery time and my hamstrings got pretty tight mid run from the Barre3 class the night before.  The burpee pull ups were exhausting in the beginning, so I knew they were going to be awful the second time around.  But overall not too bad.

• Sleep: 7 hours
  
• Thoughts: My skin is looking great!  My tummy is definitely more slim.  I'm excited to be in a bikini this weekend :)

After looking back, this week definitely lacked some greens, so I'm going to try and make that a priority for the next few days!  Things are going really well.  I was really proud of myself for avoiding pizza twice this week, especially when it was free and everyone was eating it around me.  I know this weekend will include some cheats here and there, but I'm just going to do my best!  I made a Paleo version (SWYPO!) of the epic dessert Dave's mom is making, so at least I know I'll be able to avoid that.  As far as non compliant marinades or sneaky added sugar, it is what it is.

Anyway, I hope you have a fabulous weekend!  Happy Friday :)


I need some inspiration - what's your favorite salad combo?