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?

My First CrossFit Class

What is CrossFit: CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program that delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive.  The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts.

I had been dreaming of trying CrossFit for quite some time, but the expensive price tag ($119 per month for 2 classes a week, eek!) had kept me from taking the plunge until one day I saw a LivingSocial deal for our local box (aka CrossFit gym).  We had just joined the Y, I had a yoga deal to utilize, and my schedule was rounded out with coaching cheer and playing volleyball so I was slightly hesitant.  But in the end, I decided I had nothing to lose, I would either love CrossFit or I would use the techniques I learned from the classes back at the Y.

The deal I purchased was for the 4 session On Ramp Course you take to learn all the basics before you get thrown into the regular group workouts.  I got the deal a while ago, but we were sort of dragging our feet to get to the classes.  The On Ramp session times didn't really seem to jive with our already stacked schedule.  So we waited until the last possible time to start before the deal expired.  Better late than never!  Determined to get my money's worth, I emailed the gym and asked them if we could schedule a special session since we couldn't make the regular class.  The coach was flexible and we scheduled our first session for Monday night at 7:30!

We showed up early as the group from the previous workout was stretching.  As soon as we walked in the door, multiple people got up to greet us and introduce themselves.  One of the biggest things I've heard about CrossFit is the amazing community and it was demonstrated to us immediately.  We filled out some waivers, the crowd cleared out, and we started our session!

We did a quick warm up of easy cardio and dynamic stretching.  Then the first thing we worked on was proper squatting technique.  I thought I'd be great at the squats but I learned that I'd never squatted low enough!  I was quickly humbled and found myself falling over.  We spent some time getting more comfortable squatting low and I could already feeling my hip flexors getting a workout.  And if you're thinking, ERMEHGERD that's bad for your knees, read this or this!

Next we went over push up technique.  Adjusting my arms from wide 90 degree bends to keeping my elbows as close to my body as possible and putting my chest all the way to the ground gave me another reality check.  After push ups, we did some simple sit ups.  No big surprises here except that CrossFit lets you use your arms to help you up.  We finished out our technique review getting some experience on the rowing machine.

Sounds easy right?  It was... until the Workout of the Day (WOD).  CrossFit classes typically start with reviewing techniques and then you do the WOD, which features the techniques you just went over.

Our WOD was as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) in 8 minutes and consisted of:

• 5 squats
• 5 push ups
• 5 sit ups
• 200m row

Our coach pumped up the music, set the timer, and asked us who was going to be the winner?!  Dave and I busted our butts for 8 minutes with our coach yelling form corrections and encouragement!  We completed 4 full rounds and a 5th round of the squats, push ups, and sit ups and boy was I winded!  My arms were feeling the burn between the push ups (that I was struggling through) and the rowing.

I left thinking... 8 minutes kicked my ass!  Nobody can say they don't have time to workout.  Our next session is Saturday morning at 10:15 and I think it's safe to say that I won't be drinking at the party I'm attending Friday night, attending CrossFit hungover would be quite a mistake.  I'm pretty sore today but I think some of it is from some conditioning at cheerleading last night.  I'll keep you posted on how the next class goes but so far so good!

Have you ever tried a new fitness class that was bit out of your comfort zone?  Have you ever tried CrossFit?!