Bull City Crossfitters

Mortal Peril

2012-01-24T07:37:00.000-08:00

So, I have been doing a paleo-esque style diet for 22 days now and have dropped a whopping 2 pounds. The upside is that I have been having these intense dreams where I am in mortal peril.

Seriously, my dreams have been intense. I have been waking up exhausted because I have been fighting for my life all night. I don't know if it actually has anything to do with the paleo diet but they did seem to develop shortly after starting this diet.

Does anyone else have these issues?

One week, one pound

2012-01-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

I am one week in to my diet. It is has been a lot slower this time around. The first time I did this diet I had a lot more weight to loose, so that might be a factor. I also am not coming off a binge at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, like I was the first time. I have dropped 1.2 pounds. Not great but better than nothing.
I have not been 121 in a long time. I have a deal with a friend. If we are good on our diets we get to go buy slutty dresses the first month and skinny jeans the second. It is funny but a silly prize like that has kept me motivated through some serious bagel cravings.

Umm... that was not at all helpful

2012-01-03T07:34:00.000-08:00

New year means silly resolutions. A few of them I am going to keep to myself, they mostly have to do with photography, so not relevant to this blog. First resolution: start diet.

I have started 4 hour body again. I feel puffy. I thought I gained weight over the holiday. It took me 3 days (today is Jan 3rd) to work up the courage to get on my scale. This morning when I did I cringed then looked down... Oh. Really? I weigh the same? 122.2 But I look puffy? I guess that is good. I have a lower starting point than I thought.

Then I took my measurements and entered them in an online body fat calculator. This is what it said:

Using your measurements of a 27 inches waist and weightof 122 pounds your body fat percentage is estimated to be % using the U.S. Army body fat algorithm, or % using the U.S. Marine body fat algorithm, or20.91 % using the U.S. Navy body fat algorithm, or30.93 % using the formula developed by the YMCA.

First of all F@*K you YMCA. I will go with the Navy on this one. The sentence does not even make sense. Is it saying that the Army, Marines, and Navy all have the same algorithm that puts me at 20. 91 %? Or did it just forget to fill in those numbers? Then why is there a 10% difference between what the Navy thinks I am and what the YMCA thinks I am?

It then goes on to tell me that if I have 10% body fat I might have an eating disorder. I looked for a different website. I ended up on Livestrong. I like Lance Armstrong, so why not trust his fat calculator. It gave me the same result as the Navy. 20.9. That means I want to drop 5.9 percent body fat. That means I need to loose 8.47 lbs of fat.

Hmm, 113 seems a little low. Maybe I will just aim for 115 and see what happens.

Wendler and other things

2011-12-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

December has been a pretty good month for me as far as CF goes. My Oly lifts went up and I miraculously was able to climb a rope one day. I have no clue how that happened, I just did it. One slight problem... I had no clue how to get down. Oh well, what's a little rope burn on your upper, inner thigh.

This has happened to me before. When I was little my dad taught me how to ride my bike but forgot to teach me how to stop (peddle backwards for brake). I was having fun going around the cul-de-sac, so he went inside. Then it started raining, and I did not know how to stop. I kept going around in circles. It felt like forever but I am sure it was only a few minutes when he cam out and asked me why I was riding around in the rain. I yelled back "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO STOP!" My dad felt so bad. It wasn't that big of a deal. I did not get upset I just wet out and rode the next day.

A similar biking event happened when we spent a weekend in Nantucket. My parents rented a bike for me. This time it had hand brakes. Holy crap! when you pedal backwards nothing happens. That is okay, I will just put my feet down. I do not know it you have ever been to Nantucket, but it is hilly. Needless to say, my parents had to buy me a new pair of Reeboks because there was very little sole left on the ones I was wearing.

Anyway, my lifts have gone up. I attribute this to my new work out partners and Wendler. I am still not happy with my body, because hey I am a girl. I am planning on going back on 4 hour on the 1st after my new years brunch.

Husband would also like to get in better shape so this makes food choices in the house easier. The other day he asked me if I still had the picture of him from last year when he was leaner. I told him that I could not find it on my phone.

He then got annoyed and said: "I bet you still have a photo of that fat squirrl from Chicago that you use to give cookies to."

I said: "You mean Newton?"

"I have two."

Thank God it isn't just me

2011-12-20T05:49:00.000-08:00

Or... Maybe it is a bad thing it isn't just me.

We now have turf down in the new section of the gym. It is a nice green and will be great for sled pushing. When I look at it all I can think of is football. I have this overwhelming desire to tackle people when they are standing alone in the middle of the room. It is a particularly strong pull when the person looks really vulnerable. Like, when they are doing a handstand in the middle of the room. Seriously, doing that when I am around seriously tests my impulse control. I thought I was alone in this desire.

Nope.

Last night 2 separate people, one male and one female, told me they wanted to tackle me. At first I was relieved. I thought; hey, I am not a complete loon. Other people think about that sort of thing too. Then on my drive home it hit me. This could be bad. This could be very bad. How many of us want to tackle each other on the turf? Will the turf turn into a great hazard? Will helmets be a required item at CFD?

Time will tell. I will say this: Parties with alcohol at CFD have just gotten a lot more dangerous.

Sorry about Friday

2011-12-19T05:15:00.000-08:00

I have been sick and I forgot to post Friday's WOD. This one is for Sam.

5 Rounds For Time:
3 Tuck Jumps
3 Squats
3 Broad Jumps

For the bootcampers that are away

2011-12-14T09:13:00.000-08:00

Here is your first away WOD for my boot campers that are a way for the holidays:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 sets of push-ups and a 100 meter sprint between each set

I can not walk

2011-12-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

I am having a hard time moving at all today. I also have very obvious bruises on my shins where the bar hits in the dead-lift position and then on my hips where it hits when I do the hip thrust for the snatch. (Yes, I am aware that last sentence sounds dirty).

One of my workout buddies told me to do the movement with so much power that it would bruise my legs. I doubt he was being literal but then again he is the one that told me I was made from peaches. It took me 20 million attempts but I finally got it up there and hit a new PR.

Results of perseverance:
Plus: New snatch PR
Minus: Can not move

Not sure if it was worth it. Ask me tomorrow. I might just row tonight to loosen myself up a bit.

Carolina Fitness

2011-12-07T06:15:00.001-08:00

This Saturday is the Carolina Fitness Challenge. It is a lot of fun to photograph, although it does make for a very long day of work. Note to self: buy more batteries. Honestly, it is one of my favorite things to photograph because it is a large group of beautiful people doing really amazing feats of strength.
Here is a photograph from last year:

Peach

2011-11-30T08:55:00.001-08:00

I am preparing to do this in a couple of months. I would love to tell you that I put serious thought into my training and decided that working out with Tripp and Jack would be the best way for me to prepare for this ordeal but that would be a blatant lie. I started working out with them because it is fun. The fact that I have gotten stronger and that I push a lot harder is just a side benefit.

This week we have done prowler pushes and a horrible thing called a complex. Oh, I forgot about the slam balls. Side note: Slam balls are much worse than they appear. This is especially true when Sarah G is yelling "NO REP!" at you.

The complex was: 21-15-9 of Romanian dead lifts, cleans, push-presses, front squats and rows. I used 63lbs. It was truly awful. You are not suppose to put the bar down while doing this but I did not succeed in that goal. The last set of cleans I think I was a little violent. I now have 2 clean bruises on my chest and one actually had a little egg under it for a day.

I like to believe that I get these bruises because I am super hard core but I have bee told that is not it. A friend of mine assures me it is because I am made from the same material as a peach... No, I think it is because I am as hard core as Henry Rollins. In fact I am sure that must be it. Only someone as tough as Henry Rollins would like it when they get yelled at by their friends. And I like getting yelled at; it makes me stronger. I never sandbag when they are around.

A day for CrossFit

2011-11-29T09:05:00.001-08:00

Occasionally you have a day that makes you say to yourself, I could use a hard core beating to deal with the shit of life. I don't like to share too much about myself through this blog. Just enough to let people know they are not alone in feeling: Yes, CrossFit is in fact hard and others suck at it too, but it is worth it. Today, I think I am going to let you know a little more about me because, frankly I need to vent and I have to work so I will not be able to get to the gym until 5.

Today, life handed me a big pile of steaming pooh. It handed me this lovely gift through CNN Money. Why do I care about this you ask... My dad flies for American Airlines. In fact, my uncle and my great uncle fly and flew for American. I worry about all 3 of them. My great Uncle is probably the most in danger of loosing his pension. He is not capable of getting another job to support himself at this time. He is in his 70s and has severe Parkinson's disease.

I have tried calling my dad several times. He is flying right now, so no luck. I did finally get a hold of my mom and she said that they did not know this was actually coming. You see, American is the only Airline of the Grandfather Airlines that has always refused to file for Bankruptcy. They are kind of a legend in the flight industry because of it. When I was in college an entire chapter in my Business course was devoted to how American has avoided bankruptcy over the years. The most impressive was the removal of 2 olives from every salad.

After Sept 11th, all of the pilots took a 30% pay cut and agreed to fly more so that American did not have to do what all the other airlines were doing, file for Chapter 11. Today, that sacrifice was for not. I know a lot of people will say that they are over paid. I do not agree with this. To become a professional pilot you need extensive training (which cost a fortune) and then thousands upon thousands of logged flight time before you are hired to fly a puddle jumper at $19k a year. Sure, the income takes a huge jump after several years in the cockpit but you have to put in your dues. A lot of time away from home, with low pay and sleep deprivation. They do not do this for the money, they do it because they love to fly.

My dad loves to fly. He can tell you what any plane is that flies over head. He use to take me to the air show every year. And some nights he and I would take the convertible bug to the end of the Daytona lading strip to watch planes land.

The day he was hired by American he was also hired by Eastern. He decided to go with American a really lucky decision. A decision he made because of American's honorable history. Today, they finally gave in and filed for Chapter 11. My dad should be fine until retirement but I do not know what will happen then. He will probably take another pay cut and fly more. He will do it with little complaint because he is an amazing guy and he loves to fly.

As for me, today I will work my ass off in the gym because I can't help my dad. And when I feel powerless, Working out really hard is the only thing that makes me feel better.

Snatch

2011-11-18T05:48:00.001-08:00

Certain lifts make me nervous. This is mainly because I do not have health insurance and I have hurt myself in the past. The snatch is one of those lifts. I have been stuck at 65 lbs for a long time. A few weeks ago I started lifting sporadically with one of the guys at the gym. It started with just pull-up ladders. He is a super nice guy and very encouraging in a way that works well for me. To be honest he mocks me int o feeling guilty about how much of a wimp I am being so I do more weight. (It is a friendly mocking; like a big brother.)

On Tuesday, we did my (coach's) WOD. It was: 5 rounds of 5 man-makers, 5 dead-hang pull-ups, and run 200 meters. I, unlike some other coaches, think that it is important to suffer through the pain I am inflicting on others. I did it in a little over 15 min. I actually liked it a lot. It is one of those WODs that make you feel like you have really worked out.

The strength component of the day was one rep max of snatch. As I said earlier, I was not lifting with the 2 boys that day because it was my WOD. They were lifting across the gym. I talked to them briefly about my snatch being ugly and joking ensued. I rolled my eyes kicked one of them and walked away. I put on my headphones because this required one of my power ballads... Jesus Walks. Yes, I know it is a little silly but that song and Eminem's Loose Yourself are the 2 songs that make me push harder. First attempt was ugly. and Dave said: "you got it over head but that would not count in a competition." So, I tried again. And it was much prettier and it would have counted. Cow bell rung. Then the boys made fun of how wimpy I rang the cow bell.

Very Little to do with CF

2011-11-11T06:40:00.001-08:00

There are 4 people in this world that make me laugh so hard that my stomach hurts. I am not going to lie, I am easily amused. I do think I could control my laughter if I wanted to in most cases.... I just do not know why I would want to.

Random fact: All 4 of these people have a North Carolina connection.

The first person is from the Triangle. I discovered him in 2001 while listening to NPR. David Sedaris did this series where he would read from his books. This just happened to come on while I was driving to work. I would laugh so hard that my eyes would well up with tears. This was very dangerous because I was driving and I would have to pull over to prevent killing myself or someone else. Driving without sight is generally frowned upon in Florida.

The second and third I met at CFD. They are particularly dangerous when the 2 of them are in the same room together. They feed off of each other and I truly believe that I might actually die from laughing so hard. This was very dangerous when my husband was in the hospital with Rhabdo and they both visited at the same time.

The most recent addition to this group is this person. She does not live in North Carolina, but I do and I did not find her until I moved here. I have been reading a few of her posts today in my cube and I am having a very hard time hiding the fact that I am not doing the data entry that I should be doing.

I know what you are thinking: "Bea, what the hell does this have to do with CrossFit?" I am getting to that. Hiding laughter requires a bit of abdominal work. I usually do not feel the ab work I do. Granted the last 2 days I have done a great deal but I did not feel it until I started reading her blog. This one was the worst. So, there you go Tripp, I did feel the weighted GHDs and 150 GHD WOD today.

A year

2011-11-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

It is really easy to let yourself go. You start eating convenient food and do not work out as much as you should. I have done this several times. When I was about to turn 30 I realized how unhappy I was with my body and started to work out. It was the classic circuit training and running and swimming. At my heaviest I was 140. That is 140 with little to no muscle to speak of. I dropped down to 111. Still, with little to no muscle to speak of. My dead-lift at that time was 65lbs.
I know, that is just silly but it was heavy and I did not bother trying to do more. At that time I still thought girls did not really lift weights. Stupid I know. I will say this in my own defense: I was told by my track coach in high school that a weight room was not a place for girls. If someone told my daughter that I might clock them.
I just listened to that advise until I found CrossFit.
When I moved to NC I got fat. I blame delicious food of Durham and laziness. It is funny how it creeps up on you. It is just a pound at a time and suddenly (it seems) you look like this:

This was me last Thanksgiving (the one on the right). 138.... again. This time my make up was different. I was much stronger, so arguably I had a lot more muscle. I could dead-lift 200 in this photo. I had been working out religiously but was not watching what I ate. I realized that my body was not responding to exercise alone any more and that I need to start watching what I ate. I tried paleo for a little while but that made me angry and honestly some what depressed. Whether we like to admit it or not food is a huge part of our social lives. It is ingrained into us from childhood. Yay! It's your birthday, let's eat. Yay! Its Christmas, let's eat.

4 hour body worked much better because it gave me a cheat day and legumes. I dropped down to 122. I think I could loose a couple more pounds but over all I am much more comfortable in my skin. This is me now (the one on the left):

I wish there was an easier way to do it and that once you were there you could just relax but that is just not reality. Over the next 2 months I am going to be watching myself because I have a lot of social gatherings involving food coming up. I will still eat Thanksgiving dinner with mashed potatoes and soft rolls but I am going to do it in moderation. I want to enjoy life and the way I look and feel while living it.

Ummm, that was way worse

2011-11-04T05:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we did FGB Tabata. It was truly awful. 10 seconds of rest seems pointless. Can you really rest in 10 seconds? I am going to say: No, you can not. I also have issues with the men vs women scaling.

Complete 40 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest. Perform 8 consecutive intervals of:
Wall Ball (20/12)
KB High Pull (70/52)
Box Jump (20″)
Push Press (75/45)
Row (Calories)

Yes, I did have a 12lb wall ball vs a 20lb wall ball but I had to hit the same target and I am only 5'2' to (let's use another CFD coach for comparison shall we) the male next to me that is 6'. Sure he has a heavier ball but he also has a MUCH stronger upper body.

Why is my box the same height as someone that is 8 inches taller than me (I am not even going to mention that he has some sort of grasshopper DNA in him)?

It seriously kicked my butt. I went to bed at 9:30 last night and I am still really tired. It probably did not help that I was on my 4th day on.

Okay, I am done bitching.

Rules

2011-10-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

CFD has several blogs written by various members of our community. I just read this one. Which lead me to read the comments on this one. I never read the comments section. It just does not occur to me to do it. I read it on my own blog, but I feel like they are not talking to me on other blogs. So, I don't know... I guess I feel nosy when I do it.
The funny thing about the original blog is that it did not occur to me to view it the way others did. Maybe it is because I am also self-deprecating and I know the feeling. For me it is kind of a guilt, that I have to talk myself out of when WODing. I start to think: you should be able to keep up with her or him. Why do I suck so much? Crap! Everyone is finished but me. If you have never gone through this while WODing then that is awesome. Seriously, I wish I did not do this to myself.
Most of the time, I love when people cheer for me. A week ago we did Fran. I have not done Fran in 2 years. The last time I did it was at the cert. I have not been avoiding her. It just never happened on days that I was around. When I did it at the cert it was not Rx. This time it was. My first Rx Fran.
We had an uneven number of people in the class so I did not have a partner to cheer or count for me. (I know, very sad) It was my own fault. I got so nervous that I thought I should go pee before hand and that is when everyone picked their partner. I have no clue why I got nervous. I am just silly like that. Anyway, while I was on the first round of thrusters I thought to myself, you should be able to keep up with Sarah. And then I thought... Are you Fucking crazy? There is no way you should be able to keep up with her. She is much more badass then you are. Just try not to put down the bar. Okay, try not to put down the bar twice. The funny thing is that 15 was the easiest. I just went strait through and then at 9 I got to the bar and it was really heavy. Who added weight to my bar when I was at the pull-up bar? That is when Chris came over and started counting for me. He really pushed me and because I was on nine he did not ask how many I had left he just knew. He also started cheering for me in front of me. Both of these things are very crucial components to cheering well which I will cover in a second. He got me through the end of that WOD and I was very grateful.
Cheering for Kiddo 101:
1) Please do not ask me how many I have left. That requires math. I am in no shape for math. I count up. Instead, ask what number I am on. I can answer that one very quickly. That is a much easier question.
2) Please start cheering within my line of site. If you sneak up behind me and yell "Good Job!", you will scare the hell out of me. As demonstrated by my bruises, I am not very spatially aware. This could be dangerous to you me and everyone around us if I am lifting heavy weight.
I guess that is pretty much it. I do not have many rules. The main thing is please refrain from startling me when I am WODing.

My gym is better than yours

2011-10-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

I am sure you have read Drywall's post about his gym being better than your gym. If you have not, it is funny and you should read it now. Most people get very attached to their stuff. They put a higher value on it than it actually deserves. This is no different for their CrossFit gym. It actually might be worst because you now have a community of people that you are friends with and that is a big part of what make you go to the gym. That being said... My gym kicks ass and is only getting better. We just knocked out the wall and took over the yoga studio next door. Don't worry we did not hurt the Yogis. They just moved into the basement. CFD is now 5200 square feet. That is a little over 2000 square feet expansion. I am not going to even mention the beautiful tree we now can look at.

We are getting all sorts of new exciting toys:
- A brand new, 34′ Pullup Cage from Rogue Fitness that will include 8 built in squat racks, smaller diameter pullup bars, pullup bar space for up to 40 athletes at once. (This is very exciting. I will actually be able to wrap my hand around this bar.)
- Indoor Artificial Turf for sled pushes and sprints (Should be fun and less noisy then the cement outside)
- Pendlay Barbell Kilogram Competition Weights
- 3 Pendlay 20kg Bars (very cool but crazy expensive so good for competition and NOT for WODs)
- 1 Pendlay 15kg Bar (very cool but crazy expensive so good for competition and NOT for WODs)
- 6 Standard 45lb WOD bars (nice)
- Slam balls ranging from 15 to 30lbs (Yay! I have been wanting these for awhile)
- Jerk Boxes for jerk training and other Olympic lifts (honestly I do not care about these but others do)
- 2 Rogue Yoke Racks (This actually looks like fun.)
- Climbing Ropes (I need to learn how to climb first)
- New multi-height plyo boxes (Very excited about these. I hate the metal boxes.)
- Climbing Peg Board (I am very excited by this)
- Gibson Ring Trainers (This is the most exciting thing period.)
- Atlas Stones (Very cool, I will feel like a Greek God when I use this I am sure.)
- Physician’s Scale (I do not like this)
- Vertical Jump & Reach Board (Also do not like. All this will prove is that I am short and can not jump.)

So, if you have not been to CFD in a while you might want to check us out in the next moth or so when all of out once all of our new toys are in.

You can no longer wear short sleeves!

2011-10-19T05:25:00.000-07:00

I bruise easily. I think we have established this. This past weekend I went to the CrossFit Kettle Bell instructor's certification class. I got two nasty bruises on my arms from the KB cleans. I ask the instructor if I was doing it wrong and he said: "No, that bruise shows that you have it in the pocket." Meaning that, it was landing in the right place. Greg (the class helper) said that it might be that bad because I chose a lighter weight and could easily throw it around. After the bruise was there, I was not about to go up in weight and hit myself repeatedly with a heavier Kettle Bell. I found this article that says you should find KBs with flat sides. That was not an option and as I mentioned earlier, I think a good part of the problem is that I bruise easily. I am not sure what to do about this. I have looked it up on line and have found no magic non bruising vitamin that I might be low in.I have been going non stop for most of this year. No, I am not exaggerating. I have been working 3 jobs trying to get my photography business up and running. I also have had some family things that I have had to deal with this past week that have taken a lot out of me. This weekend's cert pushed me over the edge. I woke up yesterday feeling like I had been hit by a freight train. I slept most of the day then went in to coach a one on one at CFD. One of the other instructors took me aside and said very earnestly: "Bea, you are not to wear short sleeves again until those bruises have healed." I am wearing long sleeves today.

That was stupid

2011-10-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's WOD was 50 deadlifts, 70 pull-ups, and 90 sit-ups. I should not have done this WOD. This realization did not accur to me unti the final round (It was actually 10 rounds of 5 dl, 7 pu, and 9 su), when I felt a pop on my hand. If you have never felt this pop while doing an ubsurd amount of pull-ups you are lucky. It is the sound of you skin deciding that it is no longer going to be a part of your hand. When I heard this I immediately though: "Oh F*@k! I have the Kettle Bell Cert this weekend. It is not like you use your hands with a Kettle Bell. Damn it, Bea!" So now I have a gaping hole on my left hand and a blister on my right.

PR

2011-10-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

Two years ago my strongest lifts were the presses. I have no clue why I was better at those 3 lifts than the clean or the dead-lift, I just was. I did not do any sport growing up that would make me better at them. My sports growing up were sailing, swimming, and sprinting. I was good at them... Then I was being careless and I injured myself while doing the Jerk. I had to get surgery and the physical recovery took awhile but the mental block took way too long. My press was 90lbs. Presses are controlled. Presses are about brute strength. They are not scary, just hard. My push press was 95lbs. Push presses are a little scary. I feel it in my wrist when I do them and they make me nervous. My Jerk (since my injury) is 65lbs. Jerks scare the hell out of me. This is going to be a tough week for me. I won't go into why I will just say it is going to be emotionally draining and I was determined to start my week in a more positive way. It helped that one of my oldest CF friends was there to lift with me. She made me laugh and I realized how much I missed lifting with her. She did, however, say: "How much is that? (eyebrow lift) That is pretty heavy". Not encouraging.It took 3 tries but I got 103lbs up on my push-press. Dave helped by fast forwarding the Eminem past the intro so I would have more motivation. I was so happy I put it down then skipped over to husband to tell him. He just looked at me and then said: "You can do more". This was my response:

I was just going to to 53lbs for the Clean and Jerk in the WOD but the friend I mentioned earlier told me that was ridiculous and that I could do more weight. I did 73lbs. And guess what..... I did not die. I did not hurt myself. I was fine. I also was able to string 3, count them 3 chest to bar pull-ups together. It was a good day. Now, I just need to hold onto it for the rest of the week.

Fasting

2011-10-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Today I fasted. I got up at 5 am to coach a class. The fasting became difficult around noon. I spent lunch with my sister and brand new niece. Holding a little wiggle worm while my sister got a slight break. This was good for my mood but it was short lived. I quickly got stressed out about upcoming events and then everything started to make me angry. Blood sugar has an amazingly strong effect on my mood. I also noticed how often I am offered food. This might be why I am over weight.... First thing in the morning another coach at CrossFit offered me a power bar thing that he made. It looked like a giant blondie. That is to say it looked amazing. Around 11:30 I was on the phone with another friend who asked me to lunch. Then my sister offered me half of her pie. (I do not know if you know this about me but I love pie.) I went over to another friend's house to drop off a key and she offered me brownies. They were paleo brownies but still brownies. Actually, still food for that matter. I wonder if this happens every day and I just do not notice it. Am I eating way more than I think I am? Anyway, by the time sundown came (around 7:15) I was past hungry. I drank some juice and then stopped feeling so annoyed by everything. When I got home I choked down one slice of leftove pizza and felt way over stuffed. The body is a weird thing.

4 hour again.

2011-10-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have been doing the 4 hour body diet again. I started this week. I have thought about eating badly several times already. I had a super bad day on Tuesday and would have drank an entire bottle of wine that night if it were not for a paleo practicing friend that kept me on the strait and narrow. Yesterday, I almost ate a bowl of macaroni and cheese but another friend made a comment about that, so I did not. Finally, the general manager of Brugger's asked me how my low carb diet was going before I ordered my coffee, so I was definitely not going to cheat then. Those bagels did smell amazing though.

As of today, I have lost a little over a pound. I know this, I know that it is working and that I should keep doing it but I still want bread. I still want sugar. I also know that I feel better when I eat like this. It is not just hype, I think I have made my body not like sugar by doing this type of diet over the past year.

If I eat a piece of cake or a doughnut, I get sick. I feel like absolute crap. It is a little sad. I use to love cake.

Why do I have such little self control with food? If someone told you, eat like this for 30 days and you will have your dream body, would you do it? I am trying but I keep wanting to sabotage myself for a few seconds of delicious mac and cheese. I am being honest about the seconds too. I wolf food down. I don't even think I like it as much as I build it up.

I keep thinking of that line in the new Lil' Wayne song, She Will: Karma is a bitch? Well just make sure that bitch is beautiful. Kraft Mac and Cheese is not a beautiful bitch.

Music

2011-10-06T05:53:00.000-07:00

Music is very important to me. It makes such a huge difference in life when you have a soundtrack. As I stated the other day, I love Singer Songwriters, but Tracy Chapman does not help you through a WOD. There seems to be 3 firmly held beliefs on what is appropriate in the gym. The first one I do not understand at all.... show tunes.We have a few gentlemen in the gym that like this style of music for working out. I just get a visceral response to this music in this setting. Do not get me wrong, I like it... just not when I am trying to lift or get through a WOD. If this music is playing I need to put my headphones on.The next style of music is Heavy Metal. This one I understand. I do not like it but I understand it. A friend of mine told me that it is like classical music. There are delicate nuances that I need to listen to it more so that I can appreciate it. I have a hard time believing that delicate and heavy metal should be in the same sentence. To me it feels like some one is yelling at me and I find that distracting. It did not work for me when I was in boot-camp, it does not work for me now. I usually put on my headphones.So, what you ask is playing through those headphones... Booty music. By booty music I mean Ludicrous, TI, Kanye West, Britney Spears, P!nk, etc. I imagine what the girls in the video look like and think: If I endure this pain I will some day look like that. Silly, I know. But it does keep me going and that is what is most important. No one ever got stronger by staring at the bar.

The flip side

2011-09-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

Not so girly side

1) I love NFL football. The Patriots are my favorite. I love watching Tom Brady. He never looks rushed. He completely trusts his offensive line. I have not seen any other quarterback take their time to decide which player to throw to. When he does throw the ball it is like a heat seeking missile directly to its target. It is a beautiful thing to watch.

2) F1 is amazing. These men drive at 2oo miles an hour while making angry gestures at each other with their fists. They get in crazy scary crashes then get back in the car the next week to do it all again. Sometimes, I find myself holding my breath while watching it. Okay, I do that a lot.

3) I love muscle cars. I especially love the 1967 Shelby Fastback. It is beautiful and the sound. Oh the sound.... It makes me swoon.

4) I love sports movies more than any other type of movie. I could watch them over and over again. I like football movies the best. Best funny football movie - The Longest Yard. Best serious football movie - The Blindside. It made me root for the Ravens.

5) I like guns. I really like this gun. It is an AR 15 rifle. It is easy to shoot and it looks really bad ass.

6) I like trucks in general... BUT I REALLY like this one. It is a Ford VelociRaptor. It is a Ford Raptor that HPE, the Texas-based tuner shop that won’t let Vipers leave its facility with fewer than 1000 hp, got a hold of. HPE changes it to 501 hp at 5100 rpm and 520 lb-ft of torque at 3200 rpm, thus dropping the 0–60 time by nearly 2.5 seconds. Did I mention the sound? Oh the sound... You should watch Top Gear to understand my love for this truck.

7) I love Top Gear. I love the BBC version better (mainly because I am not a big fan of Rutledge). If you have never seen Top Gear you are seriously missing out. It is funny and educational. If I had never seen Top Gear I would not know that I can out maneuver an Apache helicopter in a Lotus. That could be useful someday.

8) Any movie with Jason Statham. Seriously, if he is in the movie, shit will get blown up and it will be fun to watch. He oozes manlyness. He is like a manly slug. He leaves a trail of manlyness wherever he goes.

9) I am not sure this qualifies as not girly but I love CrossFit. I love that it makes me strong and muscular. I love that I can open my own jars and pick up things that some guys can not. I love looking at boys at NC State deadlift something I know I can snatch. I love that I am not a damsil in distress.

10) I love meat. I perticularly like meat wrapped in another meat. I will eat a salad but honestly, I would rather just eat the meat that is a required topper.

2 of girly

2011-09-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

Okay I lied. I am bored so I am going to keep going. More girly stuff.

4) I like romantic Comedies. It does not matter how bad or predictable I know they are going to be; I will watch them anyway. My favorite is still When Harry Met Sally, although Bridget Jones (the first one) is a close second.... I do not like dramatic romantic movies though. They just make me angry for some reason (I do not know why, but I hated the Notebook).

5) I love French Macaroons. Honestly, I like looking at them more than actually eating them. They are the prettiest of all the cookies.

6) Fruity drinks are awesome! Revolution has one called a Blueberry Fizz. It is pure happiness. Especially if the bartender is nice and puts blueberries in it for you when he is only suppose to do that for the virgin kind. I am sure wearing a low cut dress helps with this. :)

7) I am not sure this one is actually girly but Rich assures me it is. I love Singer Songwriters. I like other music too but I could listen to singer songwriter stuff all day.

8) Betsy Johnson make me smile. Her stuff is so over the top that it is awesome. I am not certain, but I do believe those are cupcakes!

9) Just down the hall from the Mona Lisa is this painting, The Burial of Atala. I first saw it when I was 8 and it is still one of my favorite works of art. First of all it is large (6.79 feet by 8.75 feet) so it has an impact. The first time I saw it I was walking away from the Mona Lisa thinking "What is the big deal?" and then I saw it. I felt like I had been hit in the stomach. There is so much emotion in it. So much love from Chactas. The story behind it is: Atala was torn between her love for Chactas and her vow to remain a virgin and a Christian, so she committed suicide. This is the aftermath of that decision.

10) I can't think of anything else really but I was aiming for ten. I have noticed a trend of girl bloggers to take pictures of their feet though. I have done just that thing, once. Ignore the skulls on my shoes and it looks girly.... right?

Girly 1 of 2

2011-09-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

There are definite advantages to being a girl. Bartenders tend to give you drinks a lot quicker. People hold open doors for you. And, providing they do not know you do CrossFit, men carry things for you. I like being a girl. It is fun (sometimes) to put on makeup and go out. It is also a lot of work. There is a lot of maintenance that goes into being a girls. I feel, the majority of the time, that this is time better spent doing things that are more fun. Things like running through the would shooting your friends with a paintball gun.I think this is best demonstrated when it come to the beach. I do not tan well. I do not really burn or freckle a lot either. I kind of beige. I could spend time lying on the beach tanning, trying to become a lovely shade of brown.... but that just takes too long. I lie there for about 5 minutes thinking about all the fish in the water I could be seeing or that I could be trying to surf. I could be swimming or fishing or looking for shark's teeth or better yet diving with sharks. That is when I can not stand it anymore. I have to go do one of those things. I have been told lately by several people that I am more girly then I admit to. I am not saying I do not like girly things. So, to prove that I know that there is a girl in this messy, football and muscle car loving exterior I am going to list my girly traits.

1) I love Penhaligon perfumes. They smell amazing and do not make me sneeze. They are derived for real flowers. They are expensive but worth every penny because sent is a powerful thing and there fragrances (especially Gardenia, Violet and Rose) are happiness in a bottle.

2) Peonys are my favorite flower (to look at). They are so pretty. Rich says they look like crumpled up paper but I think they look like pure girlyness. It gets even more girly.... I like the light pink and white ones the best. Honestly that goes for most flowers.

3) Tiffany's. Yes, I am one of those girls. I love that little blue box. I love the entire experience of getting something from Tiffany's. I love the store (it feels like you are walking into a vault). I love the movie (even though I know it is not actually a good movie). I also love that all the stuff I own from Tiffany's has only gone up in value. I also love how pretty but simple all of Elsa Peretti's designs are. My favorite piece of jewelry is still the Bean I got for my 18th birthday. I think that is enough girly for today. I should probably do some actual work. Tomorrow we will talk about boy stuff.

Katy Perry

2011-09-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the radio on my way to work today when Katy Perry's song, Last Friday Night, came on. There is a line early on in the song that says: "is that a hickey or a bruise". Sadly, in my case it is a bruise. A clean bruise to be exact. At least that is the one on my chest. Then there is the bruise down my thigh. That is also from cleans; I lost my grip on the bar and it rolled down my leg. I have a big scratch shaped bruise on my inner thigh from a friend's dog (she was very happy to see me and I was wearing shorts). I have a lovely round bruise on the outside of my upper right thigh from a kettle bell. The final bruise (that I know of) is on my left arm. It is clearly from dips. I say clearly, but that is only true for other CrossFitters. I occasionally worry about the general public thinking bad things about my marriage. So much so that I have started to pay attention when I do things like loose control of a bar during cleans. For a long time people would say: "How did you get that bruise?" I would then figure out which one they were referring to and say: "I have no clue". For some reason people find my utter lack of interest in where my bruise originated from as disturbing. Now, I know I am clutsy. I do think that I bruise a little easier then most though. I wonder... Do I have a vitamin deficiency or something? Thoughts? Do you guys have any suggestions of bruise reduction?

2 a days

2011-09-12T05:43:00.000-07:00

I think I started the 2 a days at a bad time. I have not had a day off from working in 3 weeks. It is the final push for the Living Social coupon that I put out. But, next weekend is it and then I get my life back. The 2 a days just pushed me over the edge. I was exhausted. Even though I did Helen Rx for the first time ever, I was really slow. I am going to do it again this week, but I do not hold out a lot of hope that I am going to feel any better.

Am I ripped yet?

2011-09-07T06:08:00.000-07:00

I have been doing 2 a days for the past 2 days. This means that I am waking up at 5:15 in order to be at the gym by 5:45. Why so early you ask.... I have to be at work by 7. The result of this experiment so far is that I am super tired. I am hoping it means that I will get ripped. I wish you could see results quickly, then I would be encouraged to keep doing this. Right now I just want to tell my boss that I am sick and go home and crawl back into bed. Stupid work getting in the way of me playing and sleeping.On a completely different note. I found this website and I think it is awesome. She makes a lot of beautiful deserts that are Paleoish. You should check it out.

Ummm sort of....

2011-09-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

I kind of got a handstand. It lasted for about 10 seconds before I started to fall over backwards. 10 seconds is not long enough to get an iPhone to focus and take the photo, so my legs are flopping over in it. Honestly, Kristen got a lot of photos of my butt. she decided to try to start the photo taking early so maybe she could get it but it just resulted in 20 photos of my ass.

I am still a long way off from a muscle up. Ollie swears I can do it, I just need to "kip the hell out of it". I will keep you posted. If I ever figure it out you can bet that I will make someone video it.

My arms do not work

2011-08-31T05:44:00.000-07:00

The last 2 days have been a shoulderpalooza. Monday was: 15, 10, 5 man-makers (with an extra push-up) and 50 double-unders. I liked this one. I liked it a lot. So much in fact, that my bootcampers will be doing something very similar tonight. The masochist in me loves man-makers. I feel like I have really accomplished something when I do them... must be the pain involved.

Yesterday, we did: presses, ring dips, push-up, and shuttle runs. My arms fell off. I had to resort to grunting during this WOD. It actually helped.

I think it goes with out saying but I did not do my muscle-up training.

Husband came up with a WOD the other night that sounded horrible and wonderful all in one neat little package. It was:
15-10-5
Man-makers
Body-blasters
If you do not know what a body-blaster is, it is a burpee pull-up into a toes to bar. Of course because yours truly is so short my body blasters have an added component. They are: burpee to box jump to pull-up to toes to bar. That is right I can not reach the bar.

I want to do it. Maybe this weekend. It seems like a good one to do on Labor Day. My arms should grow back by then.

Inspiration

2011-08-30T04:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's WOD was a tough one. It was 15-10-5 Man-makers with 50 double-unders in between each round. It took me forever because, well it was hard, and I suck at double-unders. I was going to work on my muscle-up program but I was so exhausted after this WOD that I just did not have it in me.

Honestly, I like this kind of WOD a lot. It makes me feel like I have accomplished something during the day.

Side note: One of the higher ups in my office just said good morning to a box of doughnuts and then happily walked away carrying a Boston Cream like it was a great prize. It was honestly a very cute interaction but now I know there is a big box of doughnuts around the corner from me.

I was a little defeated after the WOD when I started to teach my 6 pm bootcamp. We did two smaller WODs. The first one involved wall balls. I have one bootcamper that has been with me for over a year. Honestly, I am very attached to her. When she started she was scared to jump on the little box and had to do push-ups against the wall. She jumped on the 20 inch box on Friday and does all of her push-ups on her toes now. She has also lost a ton of weight for her wedding that is coming up soon. Yesterday she grabbed the 20lb wall ball. I have never grabbed the 20lb wall. She is, in my mind, the epitome of a badass. When I grow up I want to be just like Sam.

Then at 7 pm, Martha showed up. She is another long term bootcamper. With the same history as Sam - the wedding. Her knees all bruised and battered with a huge smile on her face. She said: Do you want to see my hat?. Of course I did.

Badass! (Yes, she just did the Warrior Dash.)

I need to stop being a wimp and work on my goals. At 8 I worked on my handstands.

Goals

2011-08-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

For the month of September I am going to continue to try to get the elusive muscle-up but I am going to also try for a free standing handstand. I have already gotten a friend to agree to hold my feet.

The hardest thing about the handstand is the fear. Why is it scary? Simple, no wall to stop me from falling over. That is why I will use my friend at first, or at least until I figure out how to control the getting up part.

The funny thing, I find, about CrossFit things is that I want to do them all the time. At least when I have a goal. It is not socially acceptable when walking by a blank wall to just flip over into a handstand. It is also generally viewed as odd to want to do pull-ups when you walk by pipes coming down out of the ceiling (granted, this would probably lead to some sort of flooding but that is a small price to pay for fitness). The worst is when I see a guy in another gym taking himself very seriously Dead-lifting 65lbs. I have this overwhelming desire to push him out of the way and snatch it.

Being a girl

2011-08-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

I have lost a bit of weight recently so I am a little more comfortable in my own skin. The result of this and talking with Rich and 2 other friends is that I am going to try to stop dressing like a boy.

I told one friend that it was a lot of work being a girl and he said that is the point. With that in mind, I went to the mall today. I looked at several different stores tried a few things on and learned several important things.

1) I still have swimmer sholders. I did not think this was the case. I was wrong. According to all designers, my sholders are just too broad. This is a little upsetting. Even going up in sizes did not help. It just made all jackets bulky in every other area and the sholders were still too tight.

2) Being a girl is expensive. I found a pair of heels that I really liked. They were comfortable and came in a size 5.5 (not easy to find). They were over $100.00. I put them on hold.

3) I do not understand a lot of fashion trends. As I stated earlier, I have big sholders. I do not need sholderpads. Why are sholderpads coming back in? Those are just silly. I also do not understand 3/4 length sleves, especially on a jacket. What is the point. The lower part of my arm will get cold or I will be shoving it up above my elbow because it is annoying.

That is it for now. I will keep you posted on my quest to become a girl.

Be Firm Beatrice

2011-08-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

Two of the men in my life have told me this in the last 24 hours. I apparently need to be firmer with people when telling them what they can not do during a class. I had this issue when I was a middle school teacher. I hate confrontation so I am bad at telling people to stop doing something. This is a very bad trait for a middle school teacher to have. That is why I am no longer a middle school teacher.

So watch out everyone... I am going to be firm (but I still love you just don't behave badly please).

Magic belt

2011-08-25T04:34:00.001-07:00

I tried out a weight belt last night after Ashley told me: "It's the greatest thing ever!" She was not lying. I went home and ordered one immediately.

To cut to the chase, I PRed my front squat. Now, I am not as strong as a lot of the CFD ladies, so it is not that impressive. I did my body weight. It made me excited about lifting again. It also did not hurt that there were only new women and me in the 5 pm... So, I looked REALLY impressive (which I am not). I just thought: this must be how Sarah G feels every day. When I grow up I am going to be just like Sarah G.

I also got help last night from Jack and Johnathan on my muscle ups so hopefully that will not be to far off in the distance.

Sorry for the grumpy post yesterday.

and I suck

2011-08-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

(Will, STOP READING NOW. This is a self deprecating post)

I have noticed a trend over the last few weeks. I seem to be getting worst at Crossfit. My double-unders are still abysmal. Yesterday, when I did ring push-ups I only did ten at a time. I still can not do a muscle up. All weight has been feeling heavy

I seriously need to tighten up. Maybe I just need to focus on a goal. I would like that goal to be a muscle up. I think I am going to try it every day until the damn thing happens.

I also need to go back on the 4 hour body diet. I love carbs but I think the reduction in protein is affecting my performance.

Yay Football!

2011-08-17T04:39:00.000-07:00

The majority of my dad's side of the family live in Connecticut. You would think that this would lead to peace and happiness when we have large get togethers and talk about sports. You would be VERY wrong.

You see, Connecticut itself, does not have major sports teams. The states on either side do. Those states are Massachusetts and New York. I am going to leave hockey out of this discussion and just focus on the 2 major sports for the Parker clan. I am of course talking about Football and Baseball.

My parents live on the Northeastern side of the state. My dad was born in Boston (I am sure you can see where this is going). I am a Patriot. I am also a Red Sox fan. Only mildly on the Red Sox part though, just because I find baseball boring unless you are there in person. Football though.... I love football.

My cousins, Tommy and Christopher, grew up in New Fairfeild. You could toss a rock at New York from New Fairfeild. (And honestly if you had the chance of hitting a Jet why wouldn't you?) This makes for some interesting gatherings.

At our 4th of July gathering my dad made me go put on my Brady jersey just to annoy my uncle. It worked.

This is just a long winded way of saying that I am happy football is on and I think it would be fun to do some football WODs (Uhmm, Dave).

Boot Camps

2011-08-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

I was talking with two other coaches a few days ago about the classes we all like teaching. The two coaches were boys. They like teaching the regular classes the best. They enjoy interacting with people who are confident and wanting to achieve more.

I personally love my bootcampers. I love seeing them do things that they did not think possible. The look of shock and joy on their face is truly awesome. I get really attached to them. I get so proud when they push themselves when they think no one is looking. It feels like it means more.

I am sure it is cool when you can teach someone like me to do a muscle-up.... But I do not think it is as amazing as proving to someone that has a hard time running to the end of the block that with a little bit of work they can run a 5k.

Silly boys.

Jumbled thoughts

2011-07-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of things swimming through my head today. The thing that is distracting me the most though is the photo posted on CF Football page today.

First of all, who spots like that? There is no way she can get below parallel with that other chick bear hugging her from behind. Second, I doubt she needs a spotter for 115lbs. Third, is it so hot in their gym that they need to strip down to only their underwear? Fourth, that top does not look supportive. Someone should tell her about Lululemon.

I also have been worrying about Will. He told me that my blog was depressing. He said I need to be more upbeat or he would stop reading. I do not want to be down a reader! So just for Will....

I learned I can jump rope on one foot. This was very exciting. I did not think I had the coordination to do anything even remotely close to that. Dave made me try last week. I was in a class with Ollie (who has jumprope superpowers) when Dave said that the warm up would be jumping on one foot. I said "I do not think I can do that Dave". He told me to try anyway. I did and I could do it. I got so excited that I shouted (I had my head phones on to help me with rhythm so I was a little louder than I planned to be) "HOLY S#!T, I AM DOING IT!" My excitement apparently was a great distraction to Ollie because I made him laugh which caused him to mess up. Either that or he was very excited about my new found talent as well.

Stupid boys

2011-07-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday CFD's strength component was plank hold for a total of 5 min. You could break it up into whatever you needed to to get through but it had to add up to be 5 min total.

Before I went, I was talking to husband while changing from my work clothes into my work out clothes. I asked him what the WOD was and he told me about the 5 min plank hold. I said "I wonder if I can make it through 5 min strait." he intimately told me that I could not. GAME ON! Oh, it was going to happen. Sometimes I think Rich does that on purpose... He tells me I can not do something so it will make me mad enough to do it.

I did it. I was so happy... for an hour. That is when Chris showed up and did it with a weighted vest. Stupid boy.

The thing tat surprised me about this whole endeavor was that my abs were not what started to give out. My quads were the muscles that started to shake. This further proved a point a friend of mine made the other day.

We were watching this random guy and when he reached for something his shirt went up a little. He had ripped abs. I mean, they looked like 300 abs. I said. Holy c#@p did you see that guys abs. This friend told me that they were show pony abs. I said I want show pony abs. He just smiled and told me that I had work horse abs.

Great! Now I am a Clydesdale.

Feels like home to me

2011-07-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

Finding the right gym is not an easy task. There are lots of different types of gyms. I am definitely a CrossFit gym type of person. I have tried other gyms in the past and they were fine but I love the way CrossFit is set up. The drive to see my friends makes me go and endure the pain of the work out. This does not explain why I go to other CrossFits when I am out of town. I guess I am just a good little cult follower when it comes to that.

I have discovered that not all CrossFits have the same atmosphere. I went to 2 different CF gyms when I was up in Mystic visiting my parents. Both were nice. The people were warm and welcoming at both gyms. But there was just something about Groton that felt right. It felt like home. It felt like CFD.

The owner of CFG is a career firefighter named Tim. He was a very nice guy. I spent a great deal of time talking with him about the Tough Mudder after we worked out together. He made me feel a lot more at ease about it. He said the electrocution part is not bad at all.

I told him to come by Durham when he is in town. Hopefully he will feel as welcomed as I did.

I am a pull-up rock star!

2011-07-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

Today I went to CF New London. They have normal sized pull-up bars there. For those of you that have not visited CFD, we have a soup can sized bar. My pull-ups were a lot better on the tiny bar. Maybe that is Dave's master plan. He makes us use the big bar so we will look like rock stars when we go visit other gym's. People will say "those people from CFD sure are good at pull-ups". And we will be humble because we are so shocked at how the magic tiny pull-up bar made us so much better.

I find it boring when people do this but it was interesting to me how different the WOD set up felt here. In retrospect it is not that far off from CFD but it felt really different for some reason. We did this:
Inch worm across the gym twice
Bench at 80% for 8 reps 3 times
Then AMRAP 15 min
15 Snatches
10 Over squats
5 Power cleans
Then run a mile
I think that Dave would have switched the cleans and snatches but I could be wrong.

It is fun to visit other gyms but it does make me a little home sick. I miss my peeps and my boot campers. Tomorrow I will go check out CrossFit Groton.

Eaton

Life on the road

2011-07-04T08:32:00.001-07:00

I went 6 days strait this past week. I did not do it on purpose. It started on Sunday. I worked on skill work with Ashley. Monday I coach, so of course I will work out that day. Tuesday was muscle ups. Muscle ups are my new mountain. I am determined that I will be able to do them before December. December is my Tough Mudder and I think they will be a useful skill. Wednesday I coach again so, well you know. Thursday was suppose to be an endurance WOD and I teach during the Monday endurance WOD so I wanted to do it on Thursday. The endurance WOD got canceled so I did the regular WOD and the Endurance WOD that a friend made up (row 250 & 10 push-ups for 5 rounds). Friday I coach again and hey I am already there.

Saturday was a different story. I sat all day because I drove from NC to CT (11.5 hours if you are wondering). I ended the trip feeling very antsy. These type of trips are always dangerous because I end up eating very badly. I ate Burger King and Starbucks on the drive.

Yesterday was no better. I ate 5 guys and the carbapolooza that my parents provided for breakfast. This morning I woke up with something that felt like a hangover. I will be changing this behavior immediately.

What is she in to?

2011-06-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wonder what people think about you CrossFit bruises? I have whip marks on both of my arms and a few on my legs. I clearly am not good at double-unders. But I do not think that is what goes through the average person's head when they see my bruises.

I actually had several cops come over and check on me at work when I had weird bruises up my arm after my wrist surgery. It took me a few visits before I realized why they were so interested in me that day. I am guessing that saying I did a bad job ditching a jerk would have been a poorly worded reason.

Mirror

2011-06-27T10:06:00.001-07:00

The funny thing about the mirror is that you do not see yourself the way others do. I mean sure you are backwards but its more than that. Yesterday's post did not teach me to love myself more. It actually, had an unexpected outcome, for me at least. The one part that I did not even think twice about writing was the part that surprised me when it came from others. I am of course talking about the last little paragraph. The paragraph where we all provided links to everyone's page that was participating in the blog post. We each stated a couple of things we thought about the others. This part was tacked on kind of as a last minute idea by Nelly. It was a good idea.

It was good for two reasons. The first being obvious, to show us how easy it is to say nice things about your friends but how ridiculously hard it is to say them about yourself. The second reason is that we got to read how our friends see us. For me, it was a bit of a shocker: Oh! Really? That is how you see me?

The comments were kind and I found myself arguing with them in my head. Coming up with reason why their praises were really not that big of a deal or warranted at all.

I got a phone call from one of my closest friends a little later in the day. This call was unrelated to the post (or at least I think it was). She said: "I think it is stupid for you to continue to wait until you are down to your ideal weight for you to have your make over". (Or something to that affect.... I know stupid was in there). She then told me that I was cute. Which was very nice and I am not sure when the last time I was called cute was. Maybe when I was 6. Needless to say I do not see myself that way. I think of myself as fat and kind of plain looking.

Today the girl in the cube next to me (who is a little 20 something hottie) told me that "I want to be tiny like you."
Tiny? I am not tiny. Maybe tiny in height but not over all tiny. And that is when it hit me. The friend that called me to tell me that I was wasting valuable time waiting to be my ideal was right. I probably will not ever be ideal.

So, I am going to go ahead and play the part. Even though I do not feel badass or tiny, I can dress like I do. Maybe dressing the part will help me feel that way. I will be handing myself over to my friend and letting her look through my closet so she can make me into a girl.

Blog assignment

2011-06-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

One of my fellow coaches at CFD came up with an idea after reading Nelly's blog. The blog post was about things that Nelly would like to be able to do and what she wants her body to look like. A lot of her goals are goals that I have as well. Some of which, I did not know the proper name for but I do now (Dimples of Venus).

I digress, Ashley (fellow CFD coach) wants us to come up with 10 things that we actually like about ourselves. They can not be character traits. This is not an easy task. I can tell you all sorts of things I hate about my body but things that I actually like or talents that I have that is a different matter. To make this a little easier I think I might do 5 things that I can do and 5 things that are physical.

Here goes nothing

1. I can do a 1 armed hand stand

2. I have a very strong core so I can do weighted sit-ups (even weighted GHD sit-ups) with a large amount of weight.

3. I am good at my job. I have, what most people call, a good eye. It really just means that I have a good imagination and I am patient. This good imagination gives me an idea what a photo will look like before I take it.

4. I can do a number of ring push-ups. (Give me a WOD with ring push-ups and GHDs and I am a happy girl)

5. I have a really high pain tolerance. This one sometimes gets me in trouble

Now for the hard ones.

6. I like my legs. They are muscular and strong. When I wear a short skirt and heels, they make cops treat me really nicely.

And that is where I peter out. I can tell you a list of things that I know Rich likes about my body but that is not the assignment. I could also give you a very long list of things I admire about the others doing this assignment.

Amy - Has amazing coordination and great rythum.
Ashley - Crazy strong, has an amazing body and is an awesome teacher
Colleen - Is a super fast runner and very funny
Linsay - Is also incredibly strong and she has amazing style (totally has the 11th CrossFit skill down). She was honestly one of the most beautiful brides I have ever shot.
Melinda - Is a superstar. She is one of the kindest people I know. She is stronger mentally an physically than I could ever hope to be.
Nelly - has the best wall balls I have ever seen and has this fearless sense of adventure that I truly admire.

I think that is Ashley's point. Not that I have to come up with 10 things that I love about myself but to know that other people can. So, maybe we should stop focussing on all of the flaws and try to see ourselves the way others do.

Highly inefficient

2011-06-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

So, I finally got my chest to hit the damn bar. I have, for a while now, been able to get it parallel to the bar but getting it to actually touch the bar had eluded me. Husband said that it did not count unless I could get it to Touch the bar. He told me this 4 days ago. It makes me very annoyed when he says things like that. I suppose that is a good thing because then I get determined to make it happen.

I asked Ollie to tell me what I was doing wrong. He told me I just needed to kip the hell out of it. I took this under advisement.

Two days later I was in the gym with Jack and did my first chest to actual bar. It matters that it is Jack because a while ago Dave said that whatever you accomplish only counts if you can do it 3 times and if you do it in front of him. He then amended that to include me and Jack. I think he did this because I kept making him look every time I tried anything new.

Jack's response was: "That was a highly inefficient way of doing it but you did do it." Later that night at dinner I told husband about my triumph. He looked at Jack for confirmation. (Boys are so annoying). Jack then said. I think I only saw it twice.

ERRG!

The next morning he left for vacation. So, I videoed my highly inefficient pull-up and sent it via text to Jack. Problem solved.

I would like to take a moment to point out that when I told Dunsey, she just hugged me and said congrats. That is the difference between girls and boys. Boys are just meaner.

Tattoos

2011-06-16T07:13:00.001-07:00

This girl I work with said to me: "It looks like you need a tattoo to do CrossFit".

Maybe that is what has been holding me back! My lack of tattoo! I actually have been considering getting one for a very long time but I can not settle on something. That and I am scared of how my mom will react.

I know what you are thinking. I am an adult I should not worry about how my mom will react. You do not know the story of my sister's tattoo.

When I was 12 my parents bought a Nordictrack. As a promotion, the good people of Nordictrack threw in a free heart rate monitor. This was one of the early heart rate monitors that would beep with your heart beat.

It was the late 80's and cutting off sections of your t-shirt was all the rage. Being a fashionable young (feathered hair and all) woman my sister had cut off the sleeves of her t-shirt.

My dad was hooking up the heart rate monitor to my sister (who was already strapped into the machine) when he noticed something. "What is this Liz?" My mom with her bionic hearing came storming in from the other room. Some how knowing what my dad was talking about. My poor sister, trapped by the evil machine's foot straps, was helpless. She said "Nothing! It is fake!" Yelling ensued for weeks. Or at least that is how I remember it. I was emotionally scarred.

That being said, these are the two that I have been wanting for a very long time:

First an Orca drawn by a Native American in the Northwest. Why you ask. Multiple reasons. I have always loved swimming. I was a water baby (that is a baby that is taught to swim before they can walk). I love marine life especially whales. I was born in the northwest. And a whole host of other silly reasons like that.

The second is a dragon. But I do not want just any dragon. I want a dragon that looks like it was drawn by Gustave Doré. I really like his Leviathan but it is not a complete dragon. Half of the Leviathan is in the water. The Leviathan is a sea monster and as I stated earlier, I like the ocean so it makes him a good candidate.

Why the dragon? My oldest sister's Chinese zodiac sign was a dragon. I have been thinking a lot about her recently and it would be nice to honor her in a way.

My favorite book has a dragon as one of the main characters, The Voyage of the Dawn Trader. Because of this, what ever dragon I get will have a cuff on its arm.

Who knows if I will actually get one, but it might make me better at CrossFit.

just a number

2011-06-16T05:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the end of my diet bet with Dori. Although I have lost a significant amount of weight (14lbs since Nov), I think it put me in a bad head space. I spent so much time worrying about food. When I had my cheat days I felt guilty so I never really enjoyed the food that I was eating. I would also think bad thoughts about friends while they ate delicious food. I am going to not diet for a while so that I can get in to a better place mentally.

I will say this... I am now in my size 2 pants again. I decided to try them on today because the plants I put on originally are so big on me that I do not need to unbutton them to take them off.

This is, even after looking at Tamara Cohen's weight is just a number posts on Facebook, hard for me to swallow. I know that I have way more muscle than I had before I started CrossFit. I know that muscle weighs more than fat. Knowing all of that does not make me feel like, at 124, I should fit into the same pants I wore when I was 111.

It is also hard to see yourself as smaller than you use to be. I do not think I look that different than I did Thanksgiving of last year. I still see myself as fat. I know that is stupid but I am not alone in this.

I have a friend that is incredibly strong and fit. She is beautiful and unbelievably badass. The other day when a former bootcamper of mine told her that she wished she was as strong. My friend's response was: "with thighs like this you would hope I could pick up heavy things". Seriously, she is gorgeous. Her body is amazing but she does not see it.

I gave her a disappointing look and she said "I know, I need to learn how to take a complement". I can act dismayed all I want but I am no different in my ability to take a complement. The strange guy from next door kept telling me how much better I looked the other day and all I could think was: how bad did I use to look?

How do you get happy in your own skin?

Yay me!

2011-06-15T05:35:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I got 2 double unders in a row several times. I think I could have kept going but every time it happened I got really excited and messed up my own rhythm. Before yesterday, I had to do: double under single under double under single under. And I sounded like a rhino while doing it. Dave actually told me one day that I was scaring the Japanese in the neighborhood because I sounded like Godzilla.

I have to give credit to a fellow coach at CrossFit Durham. He has helped me get better at a great number of things and yesterday was no different. I will say that I started working on them with Murph (who is awesome). She and I are at about the same level of double unders. She asked me if I thought we were getting high enough. I said I don't know. Then I turned to said coach that was walking up and said: "Are we getting high enough?" He said: "you just need to suck less" (not nice). He said this to me not to Murph. He is nice to Murph. I gave him an annoyed Kermit look and he laughed then actually provided help.

The help really worked. I think it might be what I need for running too. Bounce on the balls of my feet and do not kick my heels up. That is close to what Paul said to do with running. I guess these are points I already knew but having some one show you and then make you do it really helps.

Oh by the way...

2011-06-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

I am self-deprecating.

I am really only kind of bad at CrossFit. Actually, I am okay at it. I tend to look at people, like my friend Christmas, and think why can't I be that awesome.

I realized that a great number of you might be envisioning someone that is bumping in to walls aimlessly when you imagine me. I really am not that bad.

How do you even do it like that?

2011-06-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

I have heard this several times over the last few weeks. From L pull-ups are much harder why do you lift your legs when you do a dead hang to I do not understand how you can heal strike in those shoes. Last night it was chest to bar kipping pull-ups.

My chest was high enough it was just a bout an inch out parallel to the bar. I am very good at doing things the wrong way. Not only the wrong way but a way that makes them, I am told, much harder. I wish I were more of an athlete and less of an "athlete" (as Amy would say).

I have been thinking about taking Amy's advice an writing things down again. That way I can see progress. Right now I am just feeling stagnate. My weight loss seems to have hit a plateau. Don't get me wrong, I am happy with my 14 lbs loss but I would like it to be 20.

I still sound like a Rhino while doing most things: running (thud thud thud), double unders (thud thud thud), and box jumps (thud thud thud). I have asked for help from a couple different friends. I am spreading out the neediness. That way I will, hopefully, not wear them out with my spaziness.

Stop looking at me like I am a freak

2011-06-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

I have been following a diet for 5 weeks now. I am in the home stretch, with one week to go. One week left until Dori and I are finished with out bet. I have lost about 6 more pound since we started this thing. I will be honest with you, I do not feel amazing. I feel the same.

The only difference is that I get sad when I think about pizza and macaroni and cheese. Actually, I feel a little violent when I think about others eating macaroni and cheese. I am pretty convinced that is the reason a friend of mine did not order it when we stopped at Red Robin on the way to the mud run. He was scared I would hurt him. Probably, rightly so.

I do not believe all the hype about feeling great because you are eating clean. I just don't. I feel the same. What is true, is that you loose weight when you diet and people look at you like you are a freak when you order a sandwich with no bread.

All sorts of diets work for people. I have known a lot of people that have had luck with Weight Watchers. It is a little touchey feely for me but it does work. What made this diet work for me was Dori. Dori supplied support and accountability.

Support and accountability are 2 of the most important things in life. We get better at CrossFit because we have just that in our box.

In one week I will continue to eat healthy. I will just be doing it with whole grains.

Mud run

2011-06-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

I am now on the other side of my first mud run. I learned some very important things about myself. First, I need to be more aggressive. My WASPy upbringing does not mix well with competition. I actually found myself saying "pardon me" as I tried to get pass people. I did this through a great deal of the race.

The run was very crowded. There were a lot of times when things bottle necked. When this happened it got a little dangerous. The first bottle neck I had the wind knocked out of me by a rather muscular Army dude that slammed in to the back of me because he was not paying attention. He then quickly caught me from falling down and said "Sorry darlin". Honestly, ( I know this is SO not women's lib of me) being called darlin in a southern accent by a good looking guy makes up for the fact that he knocked the wind out of me. Later in the race I was tackled by a little girl (probably about twelve). It is important when the field opens up to get by as many people as possible to avoid injury in the future.

I got a little over heated. I might need to cary some water if it is going to be in the 90s. My body does not like heat. You would think this would not be the case because I am from Florida but it is. I am hoping that it will be cool in December in Tampa. It really should be but you never know with Florida.

I also learned that I have a lot of work to do. I started today. I ran a mile then did chest to bar pull- ups. I will progressively add more miles and try to get better at getting over things and crawling through things.

By the way the Minimus were the best shoes ever.

and now for something completely different.

2011-06-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

I went to bikram yoga today.

Why you ask.... because Dave programed squatapalooza the other day and my quads are still tight. I figured it would be a great way to loosen up my quads. That actually worked but I did not enjoy it.

I have taken hot power yoga before but not bikram. They are not the same thing. At least not in several key areas.

First thing you notice when you walk in the door is how little clothing these women wear. Now, granted it is hot; but they are wearing outfits that are very close to underwear. Because they are wearing so little you get a very good look at their bodies. They do not have CrossFit bodies. They have "should I buy you a hamburger" bodies.

The walls are covered with mirrors (another thing I am not use to) so I can really see the difference between my body (built like a small tank) and everyone else's (very thin with no muscle tone) no matter which way I faced. That was a treat.

The room is set to 110 degrees. I knew this going in. What I did not know was that bikram has very strict dictatorship type rules. I was told that I was not allowed to drink water until the teacher said I could (this ended up being 15 min in). That is a brilliant idea right there. Stick people in 110 degree heat and then do not allow them to hydrate when they feel like they need to.

I was then told that if I felt dizzy that I could sit on my knees. If I felt really dizzy and nauseous I could lay down but I was not allowed to leave the really hot room. This also seemed like a stellar idea to me. I was actually imagining the law suite Rich would file when I died.

I made it through alive so Jack services will not be needed at the time but I did get dehydrated. I happened to weigh myself this morning. I then ate 2 eggs with guac and had a cup of coffee. I had 2 glasses of water before going into class in preparation for the heat. I was so drenched in sweat when I got out that I decided that it would be fun to get on my scale again before I showered. Oh, and I drank a Nalgene bottle of water on the way home. The result of my hour and a half sweat fest.... I was down a full pound and that was after I drank a lot of water and ate.

Erg

2011-06-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have my first mud run this weekend. It is only 3 miles and the map that they have on the website is just silly, so I am not worried.

At least I was not worried until I did 310 squats on Tuesday. Now I am having trouble walking. I took yesterday off and have been contemplating taking today off as well but I have not had a great day today and I could seriously use some exercise to get myself out of this funk.

The other option is eating badly and owing Dori $50. Maybe I will just go for a run or row.

Okay, now I am motivated.

2011-06-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

I have a Mud Run this weekend. It is the North Carolina USMC mud run. I probably should be training for it, but I have not been. It is only 3 miles. I can do 3 miles... or so I think so.

I am also signed up for the Tough Mudder in December. I was mildly more motivated for this one because it is 12 miles long. I thought: I should start running more. My attitude has changed drastically today. Now, I want to kick ass at it.

Why the sudden change in attitude you ask. This guy:

That is Brian. He is a cop, an agent with FDLE to be exact. He is also on the SOT team (commonly known as SWAT). He has been known to jump out of helicopters with his fellow SOT friends to catch bad guys. No, I am not exaggerating.

He is part of the reason I am not fat anymore. When I started to loose weight in 2004, he created a work out program for me. That work out program got me down to 115 lbs. He is a mentor of sorts. He introduced me to the kettle bell.

I, somehow, have convinced him to do the Tough Mudder with me. I want to beat him. I want to beat him royally. Let the training begin.

That can't be good

2011-06-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today's work out consisted of several sets of 2 heavy thrusters and then the WOD which was 40 ground to over head ( heavy ) and every time you put down the bar you had to do 6 burpees.

To start with, I do not do burpees in a WOD if there are more than a couple. It causes a lot of pain and swelling in my wrist and I do not like pain and swelling, I do high box jumps instead.

During the last of the thrusters my wrist started to hurt. This made me decide that I would go with a strict press. It was a little painful but I did not think anything of it until I went home and felt tingling in 3 of my fingers.

I iced the hell out of it for the rest of the night and reassessed my priorities. I do not have health insurance right now. I need to be more careful.

distraction

2011-06-01T05:07:00.000-07:00

To help distract you from the fact that I have not been posting much recently and really do not feel like I have much to say right now, I am going to post photos from my recent shoot with my CF Raleigh peeps (and Jack).

Caffeine

2011-05-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

See, Coffee is good for me.

Body Fat

2011-05-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

I did the body fat calculator and I am now at 20% according to my calculations. This tips me over in to "Athlete". I do not feel like an athlete. I feel slow and heavy and week. Especially after yesterday's WOD. I missed round 6 because I had to stop to throw up. Yes, I threw up again. I know it is associated with the heat. My body does not handle heat well at all. I now know I need to soak my t-shirt in water before the WOD now.

That is besides the point right now. What are our views of fitness in this country? I wonder if our charts have adjusted to our waist size. Or do I have a distorted body image. Maybe it is a little of both but this is the chart:

Description	Women	Men
Essential fat	10–13%	2–5%
Athletes	14–20%	6–13%
Fitness	21–24%	14–17%
Average	25–31%	18–24%
Obese	32%+	25%+

I am aiming for 15%. I am hoping by that point you will be able to see my abs.

Ford Modeling agency has created a new division of plus size models. Although I agree with this article that these women do not look plus size to me (I really do not think an 8 is a plus size). They do not look fit.

Pain

2011-05-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

There is a new article in the New York Times about pain. I do not really agree with her. I tend to lean on the side of Peter Sagal; who said:

“What is it about the pain of endurance sports that’s fun?” he asked me. He added that when asked why he keeps running races, “I say...um...because the pain is sort of the point? Because it’s good to push yourself to the point of breaking?

“My thesis is that the pain isn’t an obstacle to achievement so much as part of the achievement. We actually want to suffer.”

The writer of the article believes that he is just referring to fatigue and not pain.

When I ran my marathon I felt fatigue and a little bit of knee pain but mostly fatigue. I pushed through, mainly because I wanted the gold Mickey Mouse head medal. I seem to be willing to stop a lot quicker when it is fatigue rather than pain. Pushing through pain is an accomplishment.

You might think I am crazy saying this, but it is true, when it comes to me. Pain signifies weakness in me and fatigue is just needing a rest. When I was younger I would give up on things as soon as they got difficult or painful unless I really wanted it. When I was 29 and fat I decided I was not going to do that any more. I wanted to be someone stronger than I was.

This does get me in trouble some times. Last year I tore my radial ligament in my right wrist while doing a jerk and then went on to do the WOD (which included pull-ups). Then I did the WOD the next day as well. The pain was pretty bad at this point so I went to the doctor and this stubbornness led to surgery.

I try very hard these days to recognize pain I can push through and pain that I should not push through. Good vs Bad pain is a tough thing to recognize. This brings me back to the article's first question about why do you run? I run to get stronger and faster and pain helps me know when that is happening. Pain is one of my motivators.

5lbs

2011-05-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

I have lost 12lbs of weight since November. I do not know what my actual fat loss is because I did not get it checked before I started actually trying to loose weight. I say actually because the other times were sort of halfhearted attempts. I am guessing it is about a 3% drop in body fat right now because of this.

So, onto my thoughts for the day. I am back to wondering how much fat I actually need to loose. I am not trying to be lazy and eat more chocolate (although that is appealing). I am trying to limit my self loathing a bit. I know I do not look good in a bathing suit right now. I tried one on last weekend and at Tommy Hilfiger and then had to fight the urge to jump off of something very high. This is especially sad because my favorite thing in the world after Husband and Gurtie is water. It is a shame that the outfit you need to get in the water make you so miserable.

As of this morning I weigh 125.4. I think I need to weigh 115 to be okay with my body. I came up with 115 because that is close to what I was when I first moved to NC from Chicago (NC makes me fat).

I found this website today. According to it my lean body weight is 100.915 lbs. That makes me 26 lbs of fat. So, now I have to figure out how much body fat I actually want. I am going to go with 15 % because that puts me right in the on the lower end of athlete (and we all want to be athletes). I followed this formula from the same website just a different page:

126.4 pounds x 0.15 = 18.96 pounds body fat
100 pounds lean body mass + 18.96 pounds body fat = 119 pounds goal weight.

That isn't too far off from my original 115. Okay, 7 lbs is what I am aiming for.

By the way this was all spurred by this post about the 5lbs of fat model.

A wager

2011-05-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

I have been fighting off a cold for the last couple of days. I have a sore throat and feel kind of icky, mostly just really weak. Or, ummmm weaker than normal. When I am not feeling well my inclination is to eat not so great food. Food like Mac and Cheese and pizza and large quantities of egg noodles in a very small amount of chicken broth. This week I have not done that at all.

The reason is not because I have suddenly become a well behaved individual that eats like an adult. Nope, the reason is that there is money riding on it. I have made a bet with the Wiggen Clan that I will follow my diet to the tee or pay them $50 a week. This bet goes both ways so feel free to offer them a cupcake. I am just kidding leave them a lone or be supportive. Do not give them a hard time.

This was Dori's idea and it was a good one. I might have eaten at pie pushers for an extra $10 but not for $50. The cheat has to hurt. It is a stick approach. Why a stick rather than a carrot? Because I will ignore the carrot when offered a delicious bag of fried clams.

If you want to do this to yourself you can go to StickK.

Alligators, Fire and Electrocution

2011-05-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in a while. I have had a great deal of change going on in my life and a lot of photography work. I have been fairly good about working out but not so great on the diet end. I have found that the best thing I can do for myself is to have the week planned. As much as cooking all day on Sunday bums me out, it is the only way that I stay on track.

When I do not plan out my food, I forget to eat until it is too late. What I mean by too late is that I go from fine to insanely hungry in no time. This makes me panic for some reason. The result is a trip to a vending machine or eating whatever is on hand.

A quick note: The world out side of CF does not eat well. If you are in the outside world no one has chicken in their purse to offer you or a paleo kit in their car. They have Cheetos and powdered sugar covered mini doughnuts.

I am trying to remember what Sears says "you are just one meal away from the zone". I do have a lot of guilt associated with my behavior over the past week though.

I now have another reason to get in better shape though. It involves alligators, fire and electrocution. Yes, I have signed up for a Tough Mudder.

Now that is new

2011-04-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

The last 2 days consisted of a lot of pull-ups. On Monday I did this WOD:

5 Rounds For Time:
Run 200m
10 Pull-ups (total of 50 pull-ups)
Run 200m
5 Power Snatch

I loved this WOD. It was hard but the good kind of hard. I felt awesome after this WOD. My pull-ups just came together and I have no idea why.

Then yesterday I did a pull-up thing with Dori (in addition to the regular WOD) The pull-up thing was: 3 pull-ups every min on the min for 20 min (total of 60). I think I dropped to 2 pull-s on 4 rounds (actual total of 56). My hands were sore after this so for the actual WOD I found the kettlebell with the smoothest handle.

This morning I woke up to find this:

The photo is not that great; but I have 2 blisters where the arrows are. How does one get a blister there?

Sunshine

2011-04-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

I am losing my medical insurance in a couple of weeks. In preparation for this, I got a physical with blood tests. One of the blood test was for my vitamin D levels. My levels are low.

I wish they would prescribe a couple weeks in the Caribbean.Instead I get this:

I do not know if it it is all in my head or not but I had a lot more energy the day after I took my sunshine pill. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Food for thought

2011-04-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me this article. The main point of the article (that cheat meals are help not a hindrance) was essentially preaching to the choir. One line stuck out to me though: "carbs raise serotonin levels". Is that why I have been crying at cat food commercials?

This required further research. This is what I found:

Carbohydrates, when digested by the body, are effectively broken down into sugar molecules. When these molecules are absorbed and released in the bloodstream, blood concentration of glucose increases. Almost immediately, there will be a significant increase in plasma insulin levels as a result of the pancreas releasing its stored insulin. Insulin then steps in to do what it is genetically program to do–it breaks it down some more to produce energy and transport the extra glucose from the blood to the body cells. Insulin also makes it easy for tryptophan to enter the brain by eliminating its other amino acid competitors.

Tryptophan, an amino acid and an important ingredient in serotonin synthesis, is one of the substances allowed by the brain to enter from the blood. Tryptophan is the less occurring amino acid in the body and competes with the other amino acids in entering the blood-brain barrier. In a journal published by Springer Wien, it was observed that the concentration of the majority of the amino acids, including alanine and glutamine, are significantly reduced each time insulin is secreted. Tryptophan is then able to enter the brain at a higher rate. An increased level of tryptophan in the brain means more available tryptophan for conversion. Tryptophan undergoes hydroxylation to the 5 positions and is converted in 5-HT and eventually to serotonin.

Even when I was having a cheat day I was not really eating that many carbs because I was a little scared that I would loose the progress I made. I will rectify that his weekend.

I am winning... well not really

2011-04-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

I do not feel like I am winning right now. I have had a few set backs of late and I unlike Charlie Sheen I see them REALLY well. One thing is my Snatch was ridiculously hard yesterday. I feel like when I try to get better at one thing, something else suffers.

How dose one become well rounded? Maybe I was not meant to be a Jack of all trades. Maybe I should try to specialize in something? What sport requires a strong core and very little coordination? I want to do that sport.

poison

2011-04-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

What do you need to drop from your diet to loose weight and be healthier? Sugar. Robert Lustig argues that sugar is nothing more than a poison. More than likely you have viewed this Youtube video. I watched it for the second time today.

The Cliff's Notes
To put it simply: Fructose must be metabolized by your liver. What do we call things that must be metabolized by one's liver? A poison. If you think that is a bit extreme... How do you make ethanol? You ferment sugar. Sugar is the same as ethanol, it just does not give you a buzz because it can not be processed by the brain.

So what if we started to view all sugar like alcohol? To quote cookie monster, "it is a sometimes food". I know that giving up fruit and all sugar will not work for me. It makes me sad to think of a world without chocolate or fruit pie. I can, however, put it off till the weekend. I wonder how much healthier (and smaller around the middle) we would be if we took this approach.

The diet I am on right now cuts out sugar entirely for the majority of the week. I get one cheat day every week to indulge in whatever I want. Robert Lustig says "When God made the poison, he packaged it with the antidote." Where ever you find sugar it is packaged within a large quantity of fiber. Think about sugar cane. I will probably start to eat fruit again once my weight is to a level I am happy with but for right now I am limiting it to one day a week. This limitation resulted in a 3lb weight loss last week.

4hr body Day 5

2011-04-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

Another diet.... I was getting frustrated because I dropped 8 lbs and then it just stopped. I started reading The 4 hr Body after a coworker told me about it. Husband had already heard about it and downloaded for his Kindle. It is a really long book with a ridiculous lead in. I have no clue the amount of pages that are devoted to how great of a book it is going to be because I read it on my Kindle; but they should have been edited down.

Here are the diet rules:

Rule #1: Avoid “white” carbohydrates. Don’t eat bread, pasta, rice (brown or white), grains, potatoes, breaded fried food or dairy on your slow-carb days.

Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again. Meals should include protein, legumes, and non-starchy vegetables; eat as much as you like, 3-4x/day.

Rule #3: Don’t drink calories. Avoid milk (including soy), sweetened soda (no more than 16oz of diet), and fruit juice. One or two glasses of red wine are permitted.

Rule #4: Don’t eat fruit. Tomatoes and avocados are okay (the latter in moderation).

Rule #5: Take one day off per week. Go nuts and eat lots of calories to keep your metabolic rate (thyroid function, conversion of T4 to T3, leptin) up. Do at least five days of rules 1-4 before following rule 5.

It is basically paleo with the fruit taken out and legumes added in. Drum roll please...... down 3 lbs. I am actually a little scared about rule 5. I have decided I just can not handle the stress related with an entire day of cheating. I will do a cheat meal instead.

The right kind of girl

2011-04-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have always been a tomboy. The majority of my friends have been boys. When I say majority I mean I had 2 female friends growing up and all the rest were boys. This was the case until CrossFit.

In the past few days since I posted my opinion on Tracy Anderson, I have seen two very different behaviors from women. Of course we did poke the bear first (or as McKell says the angry fawn). But we did not poke hard. We were not mean. We (and by we I mean Ashley) simply stated that what they were doing to themselves was dangerous.

They might look like fawns but they are strait up honey badgers. Those girls are mean. Maybe it is because they are so hungry. What ever the reason there is no excuse to be so cruel. I did find today that you can mark comments as spam or as mean. They will take it under advisement if you mark it as mean but take it down immediately if it is spam. I marked all of the really mean comments as spam. This type of meanness is exactly why I never hung out with girls... well that and the fact that playing paintball in the woods just sounded like much more fun then playing with dolls.

CrossFitters on the other hand do not do that sort of thing. Ashley is right when she says that it is a welcoming community. Of course there is some competition between boxes but it is never mean. When someone is injured and out for a while, we worry about them and encourage them when they can come back. We tell them that it will not be long before they are right back to where they were. I know this because it happened to me.

I have so many amazing, strong (mentally and physically) female friends now. Friends that I feel very lucky to have.

Pain

2011-04-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

I am a bit sore today. I do not really know why. I did not lift heavy yesterday. This is what I did:

Run 800 with boot campers
Bench press
5 rounds of
10 cleans
10 elevated push-ups
Sprints with Murph
Pull-up ladder with Dori

My wrist started to bother me during the WOD so I dropped the weight an used dumbbells to keep my wrist in a neutral position during the push-ups. That is not what is sore today. My butt is sore today. Why?

My favorite thing that happened yesterday was after I finished my last pull-up, a certain someone that had been watching Dori and I suddenly says: "You guys are going to be hating life tomorrow". Why, you ask...

Today's WOD:
AMRAP in 10 minutes:
25 Double Unders
10 Pullups

Now, I do get the WODs ahead of time but I do not remember what is on each day. He totally could have chimed in before we did the pull-up ladder.

Healthier?

2011-04-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

I subscribe to a lot of different blogs. Some are CrossFit related, a lot are photography related and then some are food related. One of my favorite blogs is Pioneer Woman. It combines food and photography. I have made several of her recipes. I had to modify them a bit to make them more paleo friendly.

Today I opened up my reader to find this:

Granted, it was not on her site. She linked to it. It is a "Healthier Gyro". Healthier than what? It has french fries on it. It says that they are baked but come on. If you are going to eat that sort of thing, make it your cheat meal. Do not fool yourself into thinking it is healthy.

No wonder we have issues when we see this:

and this:

in the same commercial break. In case you are wondering, that bread bowl has pasta in it. And yes, Nicole Richie is a Tracy Anderson follower. Sorry about the rant.

Tracy Anderson

2011-04-11T06:05:00.001-07:00

There has been a lot of talk about Tracy Anderson and her silliness though out the CrossFit community. The biggest thing being her "women should not lift more than 3lb" philosophy. This and this are with out a doubt my favorite responses to it. And, although her 3 lb rule is ridiculous it is not the thing that bothers me the most. It is her diet. Her diet is insane. For those of you that do not know: it is a 700 calorie a day diet that consists of mostly pureed food. She is essentially promoting anorexia.

The reason this bothers me so much is, I like many American women, have struggled with an eating disorder in the past. I am proud of the fact that I have gotten past some of the worst habits I have had. But there will always be this nagging feeling that I am not thin enough. I am trying to over ride that feeling with one that at least says fit enough.

I have changed my view of what beauty is. I no longer find this to be the ideal:

I now strive for this:

I think, as a person in the CrossFit community, it is easy to miss fitness trends that are happening outside. I went to the Dirty South competition last year and was in awe of the fitness levels. I also felt kind of like a lump. In contrast, the beginning of this year I went to the 24 hour race in Daytona and felt like beacon of fitness. My view of beauty has changed thanks to CrossFit and I think it can change for others as well. That is why if you are willing to post a picture of you in all of your CrossFit / weightlifting badass glory, I will take it for you free of charge. That is all you have to do to get a free fitness photo of yourself; post a photo of yourself with your lifts on Tracy Anderson's fan page and I will take the photo for free. Do not worry if you are not as strong as Tamara or Stephanie. Just remember that the girls that follow Tracy Anderson only lift 3 lbs. I was thinking about how much Tracy would be wishing she had lifted more weight if the tire I flipped yesterday fell on her. Boy would she be F@#ked.

Another night of little to no sleep

2011-04-11T00:03:00.000-07:00

I have a sleep disorder. I even went through a sleep study at Duke. They attached a great deal of wires to my head and then told me that I do not leave stage 2 like I should. Essentially, I do not turn off my brain. I keep thinking and worrying about things when I should be sleeping. This is a chronic issue. I can not remember a time when this did not happen.

I have drugs that I can take but I should not take all the time. If I think, I will be okay tonight. I will not take in Ambien. I will often wake up at 3 am wishing I had. Because, like now, I am awake and now it is too late to take it.

What makes matters worse is now you hear of studies being released that say weight gain is associated with lack of sleep. Great, another thing for me to worry about while I am lying there not sleeping.

Melinda

2011-04-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

For an update on the very amazing, very strong Melinda please click here.

They should know better

2011-04-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

You try to do something nice for people and then they say it is too easy. Oh well!

Actually my boot campers seemed to really enjoy the Hoover Ball game. The problem was that it was also bring your friend week and I had a few new comers from the Living Social Coupon that we did. (2 that were suppose to come and 2 that just wondered in.) My class more than doubled in one day. I could have changed from my original plan to give them a more realistic view of what they will normally do in class. But I like a plan and that was a large group of people with no CF experience. So Hoover Ball seemed like the safe path to stay on. The problem that they will face now, is that then I feel like I need to prove myself.

Maybe there is a little CrossFit main site buried deep in my psyche. Oh, you can do this crazy ass work out I have created in less than 3 minute? Well, then... Bam! Ring handstand push-ups.

Seriously though, I am not that bad. I just feel like I have to give them their money's worth. So, needless to say, tonight will be tough.

Stats

2011-04-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

"Shirtless black men" is one of the top key words for my site today. Why? I do not think I have written about that. Not that it isn't nice to see.... but this is another one of those things that would lead to great disappointment when you actually visit my site.

I feel like now I actually have to produce a shirtless black man. Here you go:

Guilt

2011-04-07T06:24:00.000-07:00

I get in to these patterns. Pattern of either being completely on or not wanting to work out at all. The crazy thing is, there is guilt associated either way. When I am off, obviously I feel like a sloth and feel bad about it. The only thing that stops me from starting up again is the fear associated with the pain I will inevitably feel.

This is the crazy part: when I am on, I have a hard time taking a rest day. I feel guilt about my rest days. Why? I have no clue. Yesterday was my rest day. I spent it rowing 1500 meters and doing as many double unders as I could in 10 min.

This morning I decided that I would take tonight off (for real). I have a lot of photo editing to do and my body could probably do with an actual rest (especially my legs). Then I look at the CFD website:

5 Rounds For Time:

10 Pull-ups
10 GHD Sit-ups
10 Push-ups

I love GHD sit-ups and Dave hardly ever programs them since they almost killed Rich. I do understand the fear. I just would like Rich never to do them again but he makes up his own WODs and throws them in regularly. Rich is hard headed and will not let anything beat him.

Side note: For those of you that do not know, Rich had rhabdomyolysis. He was in the hospital for 3 days after doing Michael on the GHD. (Michael is: 3 rounds of run 800, 50 GHD sit-ups, and 50 GHD back extensions) His CK levels were at 120k . CK levels should be under 300. He was given the high score at Duke Hospital.

I think that part of the problem might be that I am not happy with the shape I am in. There is this fear that if I stop I might revert back to the fat version of myself. I also wonder if I will ever get to the point where I am happy with my body's shape. I know this is not the healthy, strong woman that I should be but it is the truth.

Play

2011-04-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

I teach boot camps at CF Durham. I really like teaching boot camps because the people in them are very gung-ho and willing to try anything. I feel like I have been kind of brutal in my WOD creation recently. I usually do the WOD before hand and then try to adjust so it does not suck too much. I want to make sure it is fun as well as good for the body.

Today I am going to have them play a game of Hoover Ball. I have not quiet figured out how I am going to work the net yet. I did however, find the original rules:

Rules for Playing

· The court is 66 feet by 30 feet.
· A 6-pound medicine ball and 8-foot volleyball net are used.
· Teams consist of 2-4 players. (For the national championships, 3-player teams will be used.) Each team may have one or two substitutes.

· Scoring is exactly like tennis. Teams play best-of-five or best-of-seven games.

· Points are scored when a team: fails to catch the return, fails to return the ball across the net, returns the ball out of bounds.

· The ball is served from the back line. The serve is rotated among one team until the game is won. Teams alternate serving after each game.

· The ball must be caught on the fly and immediately returned from the point it was caught. There is no running with the ball or passing to teammates.

· Each team's court is divided in half. A ball returned from the front half of your court must be returned to the back half of your opponent's court. If the ball doesn't reach the back court, the opponent is awarded the point.

· A ball that hits the out-of-bounds line is a good return.

· A player who catches the ball out-of-bounds, or is carried out-of-bounds by the force of the ball, may return in-bounds before the return.

· A ball that hits the net on its way over is a live ball. (If it was thrown from the front court, it must reach the opponent's back court to be good.)

· Teams may substitute at dead ball situations.

· Women serve from the mid-court line.

· Women may pass once before a return.

· Women may return the ball to any area of the opponent's court.

· Good sportsmanship is required. Points in dispute are played over.

I am going to drop the "Women" rules. They look like Traci Anderson had a hand in them (but hey, it was the 1930s).

Hopefully they have fun. I have only played this once myself and it was with a certain caped crusader at the helm so he gave us a 20lb med ball to play with. I did not enjoy it because of my immense fear of getting knocked out.

beatriceyaxley's photostream

2011-04-05T12:13:00.001-07:00

beatriceyaxley's photostream on Flickr.

What type are you?

2011-04-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

I went to a photography workshop recently, and one of the men hosting it referred to himself as a generalist. I love photographing all sorts of thing so I would like to believe that I am a generalist as well. The truth is I am best when photographing things I love.

I realized this while throwing several of my photographs up on flickr. Some of my best work is of CrossFit. This isn't to say I won't do a kick ass job at a wedding. I will... It will just be better if I like you. :)

Seriously though, I think I need to try to photograph more sports. What do you think? My flickr stream is on the post above this one.

Lucky

2011-03-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Almost all CrossFitters these days have a blog. I read a great number of them. I especially pay attention to the blogs of my fellow Crossfitters from Durham. Today I was reading Erin's blog and it occurred to me how lucky I was in high school.

I too was on Track & Field and Cross Country. I, unlike Erin, was more into the sprinting distances. But I do not think there was ever any kind of animosity between the sprinters and the long distance runners. I gather this is, from reading Erin's blog, because we never had to fight for track position. Coach Johnson , my awesome track coach and former player for the NFL (and then signed my senior year to play for the AFL), use to take us across the street to run. The beach was across the street. You think I am kidding, but I am not.

This never led to fighting... It led to complaining. He use to make us run in the soft sand or in the water on hot days. Some times he would make us do both. For those of you that have never tried to run in either, it is hard. It actually is a great work out and I might make myself do it next time I go back to Florida.

Talk about functional fitness. He was a man ahead of his time. And to think, now I pay to be told to do that sort of thing

Additional note: I was just told by an old high school friend that he now has a student athlete program and runs the Granada bridge with the students. This is the Granada Bridge:

Heaven in a tub

2011-03-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else tried the Ben & Jerry's peanut brittle flavor. Holy S#!t is it good! No, it is not good for you, technically.... but it does not have wheat in it. Trust me, you should eat this. What ever higher power you believe in wants you to, because they want you to be happy.

Sickness

2011-03-29T11:41:00.001-07:00

I had a beer the other night when I went out to my friend Becky's going away party. I got violently ill. I did not even drink the entire thing. This made me reassess my eating habits. The sickness I get seems to be getting worse. Maybe I build up a kind of resistance when I keep eating it so it is not so bad but I never feel 100%.

After some research on line and discussing these issues with a friend that has a similar problem, I am going to try to go with out wheat, barley, or rye for a while. I will still eat rice corn and potatoes.

I have also found some cookbooks that have ideas that are not quite paleo but closer than most. I am going to experiment a little and report back.

If you have flu like symptoms; including upset stomach, severe abdominal pains, low grade fever and skin irritation after drinking less than one beer I would love to here about it.

Stupid Girl

2011-03-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

I spent a lot of time in high school not trying things because I was told by one person or another that girls don't do that. I found ways to be near the sport with out actually getting to do the sport. I was a: weight lifting, foot ball, soccer, and wrestling trainer. Now, this is the sad one.... and I dated a surfer.

What is a trainer you ask... It is a person that tapes ankles, spots weights, catches and throws balls (to help you train in your catching or throwing of said ball), and makes sure you are hydrated.

I really love football. Because I was doing all that catching and throwing with all three teams (Freshman, JV, and Varsity) , I got really good at throwing the football. Do not get me wrong, my dad had been tossing the ball around with me since I was little; but 3 hours a day after school every day leads to improvements. At one point during my Sophomore year I got the courage to go up to Coach Yokum (head football coach) and tell him that I wanted to play. I presented my case on why I would be good for the team and this is what he said back to me: "Because of Title IX, I have to let you on the team but know this; it does not matter to me if are better than the boys. You will be riding the bench the entire year." And that was it. I should have argued, but I didn't. I just went back to my place as a trainer.

A few years ago, I realized how stupid this was. I decided that if I wanted to do something, I was going to do it. I am far from an elite athlete. I am slow, uncoordinated, and compared to a lot of my fellow CrossFitters, weak. One thing I do have though is determination, everyone should especially girls. A lot of people will tell you can't do this thing or that. The trick is, to learn how to ignore them.

I did actually ended up trying to surf. I love it. I suck at it but I do love it.

The monster that lies within

2011-03-22T07:40:00.001-07:00

I do not know about you but I become one moody little person if I do not eat. I go from 0 to huge scary monster in 2 seconds flat. This is not a problem when I am eating like the majority of Americans. When I decide to be a good little CrossFitter and eat Paleo, I do not get the normal hunger pains. These hunger pains are very important! Why do they disappear when eating Paleo? We have already discussed my laser like focus (lobster if you are from CF Durham). I do not pay attention to the outside world when I am doing, well anything really. I need my body to say: "Hey! Go eat!"

When it does not, I suddenly feel very angry at the silliest things. Example of such an annoyance: my cousin's overwhelming devotion to photograph every pizza he eats and post it on facebook. Here are but a few of his photos:

There is another problem with paleo.... Other people. It really isn't just paelo it is any kind of diet. If you are vegetarian or vegan or whatever, people will give you a hard time because it is not what they are eating. For some reason people want you to eat what they are eating. Today I was eating my lunch alone in my cube when a coworker walked by and said: "It does not look like you are sticking to the outside rim of the grocery store." I was eating this:

Salmon and avocado.

It made me wonder where does he shop? Other than those little issues I think I am doing surprisingly well this time around. I have not gotten any headaches and as far as I know, I am not in ketosis. I do think that if it were not for my love of pizza I would be able to do this for life.

Laser focus

2011-03-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

I get really focused on most things that I am doing. The result of this laser like focus, is an utter lack of awareness of anything else around me. This obliviousness leads to many problems. Problems like coffee tables jumping out at me to attack leading to large bruises all over my legs.

I also get the crap scared out of me when eating my delicious pineapple Greek yogurt when ninja like women sneak up behind me to through out their Super Big Gulp cups.

If only there was a way to hone this focus and use it for good.... like double unders

happy place

2011-03-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it was bound to happen. As my friend Bronwen would say,I lost my shit this morning. What is worse is I lost my shit on 2 friends. It was over something so silly too (it was over seating assignments). It was just the final straw in a very large quantity of straw.

I actually started having involuntary muscle spasms last night. Primarily they are limited to my left arm. I seriously need several days of sleep and peacefulness. Let this be a lesson to all of you. Your body will start to revolt against you, if you do not give it enough sleep. Even if it is one muscle at a time.

One of the friends I lost it on told me to be "very generous with my rest days". The issue is that one of the things that has been keeping me sane is working out. That was his awesome response, by the way. I freak out. He tells me to take more Bea time. I have met some amazing people through CrossFit.

I was looking through my photos to see if I had any of straw and I found a photo of the dock at my parents house. This is my happy place. I think it is better to focus on that instead.

Better

2011-03-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

Last night I got to lift with a good friend and it really made my day. As I said, I have been super tired and worn down. Having a friend around to help push you is incredibly helpful. Even more so when they are as positive as this one is. She has such a happy outlook on life even when she is over worked and wiped out too.

Gandhi said: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." When you are positive and happy it changes the people around you. I need to try to be more positive.

That is my next goal: be positive or at the very least don't be such a downer. I told her that I behave better when she is around. She asked me if I meant food or exercise.... I said both.

It is true, if you have a partner in the fitness / health thing you are better about it. Cynthia Breazeal did an experiment where she gave people on a diet either a computer, a robot, or a pen and paper to record their diet. The people with the robot had the best out come because they felt like they had someone to report to. They had a connection to their robot and did not want to let it down. Here is a photo of said Robot, from Dr Breazeal's website:

I personally would rather report to this one:

Sleep

2011-03-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

I have been over worked for the past 6 weeks. I did this to myself and I have 5 more weeks before a break. What I mean by a break is I have a weekend off. I scheduled myself in this way without realizing it. I am a photographer that is trying to get my business off the ground; so, I did a Living Social Coupon. I was lucky enough to have 93 people sign up through this deal. 93 amazing people that I need to photograph in the next 6 months. That would not be difficult except for the fact that I also have a temp job that is 40 hours a week so that I can pay the bills. I coach CrossFit 3 days a week. 2 of the three jobs I love. Unfortunately, the job that I do not love takes the most time. Needless to say, I am exhausted.

This morning when I woke up to my alarm, I started crying. This is not a good sign. I am so tired right now that it is painful. I know my exercising is suffering because my fatigue. Last night my dead lift felt so heavy an it was no where near my one rep max... 55 lbs from my one rep max. Trying to do double unders is an exercise in futility. I need to sleep so tonight after class, I am going to go home and go to bed.

I really just want to go to the beach and in lie the sun all day. I would kill for a trip to the beach right now.

Music

2011-03-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a particular type of music that gets them going. I call the music I require for motivation, booty music. It is really a mix of rap, R&B, punk, and pop. My play list has Eminem, Green Day, the White Stripes, Rihanna, Lupe and yes, even a little Britney Spears.

Some times the music I pick embarrasses me a little. Okay, a lot. I have one song that I like a lot for kettle bell swings on my ipod. (Yes, it is that specific.) I forget it is on there because I have a really large work out play list. It does seem to rear its ugly head every time I plug my ipod into the gym speaker tough. Of course certain friends are not capable of letting it go. Even though one of them has a techno version of Phantom of the Opera on their ipod.

That humiliation made me want to try to use Pandora for a work out, but my experiment failed miserably. Pandora was just in a very melancholy mood. It kept trying to get emotional on me. What was the seed song you ask... Rude Boy. Do you have a suggestion for a seed song that would not lead to a slow song?

too much shoulders

2011-03-11T10:02:00.000-08:00

I have discovered that too many of my goals involve shoulders.

1. higher box jump
2. one handed hand stand
3. better at double unders (try not to be a spaz)
4. better at pull-ups
5. butterfly pull-ups
6. get stronger
7. get better at dips
8. muscle ups
9. wall free handstand

This is not a big deal; but after yesterday's WOD I realized that there is a problem. My shoulders are now very sore. I have added some additional goals that will allow my arms a break every once and a while.

10. take time off of my incredibly slow mile.
11. pistols
12. learn how to climb a rope (Dori uses her feet mostly.. must get Dori to show me how)
13. Faster row

Yes, I do realize that my goal is basically: be better. There is nothing wrong with that. I want to be a better Bea.

Yesterday's WOD was this:

Elevated Parallette Pushups - I can do 5 in a row with my feet on the 17 inch box. I did not try to do a higher box. I should have.

AMRAP in 15 minutes: 10 Overhead Squat 10 DB Push Press

I did not do this Rx. I am still having issues with wrist stabilization from my surgery in June of last year. It is a lot better but not good enough to overhead squat 64 lbs (I did 45lbs). I did 22.5 lbs on the push press; mainly because I did not bother reading the board. It was a deceptively difficult WOD.

Here are some photos from last June:

Injuries suck. You can choose to do one of two things: let yourself heal then try again or let yourself heal and be scared to pick up a weight again. I am trying again.

Lent

2011-03-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Today is the start of Lent. For those of you that do not know what Lent is: it is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. People of Episcopal / Anglican and Catholic faith tend to give up something for this period of time. This Lent I am giving up Chocolate.

This is going to be particularly difficult because I have given up so much already for Paleo. I have come to rely on dark chocolate at night as a little pick me up. I know that I am just shifting my food addiction to a specific food, but that is what I have been doing. I actually have been having exactly 3 pieces of dark chocolate a night for quite some time now.

I, like most people in America, use food as a comfort. I use chocolate, specifically, as a comfort. Do not get me wrong; I have no desire whatsoever to give up chocolate. I view it as one of life's great pleasures. I fully plan on gobbling up a large quantity of chocolate on Easter.

The extreme difficulty with this sacrifice is that I am going through a very stressful time in my life right now. Several things are changing and I have no clue what my life is going to look like in 3 months. I decided yesterday, that I need to focus on the things I can control.

With that in mind, I can control what I do with my body. I am going to continue to give myself little goals that I may or may not achieve so that I can focus on that instead of the stress. Yesterday's goal: a one handed hand stand. I came upon this goal in kind of a silly way. I was looking through some photos a friend just posted on Facebook of their vacation and stumbled on one of him doing a one handed handstand. I thought: I want to do that. I will do that today.

another rant

2011-03-08T06:59:00.000-08:00

I seriously thought this was a joke when I saw it in a magazine. It is amazing how much your mindset changes by the people you spend you time with. The website says that it has an app now and it was number one on the NY Times best seller list. Of course it was! 3 years ago I would have bought it. A book that tells me I can eat pizza and loose weight? Sign me up!

They also quote a woman named Nancy L. Snyderman that says: Your weight is not your fault. I have news for you Nancy: yes, it is.

I am the one that decided to sit on my butt and not go to the gym. I am the one that ordered the pizza and then ate half of it. No one else did that to me. I did it. I am also the one that decided that I want to be strong and lean not skinny or fat. I am the one that has lost 10 lbs of fat over the past few months by eating paleo and doing CrossFit more religiously. I know it is fat because I am stronger than I was in November. I am the one that worked hard to get to a 32 inch box jump and will continue to work hard to get an even higher jump. If you take away my fault you take away my glory too.

It is easy to forget about the obesity epidemic when you are surrounded by CrossFitters. 63% of Americans are over weight. 26% of Americans are Obese. That is insane! I know I am preaching to the choir but if we allow people to believe that "it is not their fault" then they will only let it continue.

because that is what we do.

2011-03-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

I had a conversation with my mom yesterday about my ummmm, determination. According to my mom, I have always been... I will be honest with you, she said hard headed. The example she always uses is of my 16th birthday. I wanted to spend my 16th birthday in the same place I spent my 8th birthday. I wanted to spend it at Warwick Castle. (They have peacocks everywhere; it is down right magical.) This is not as big of a demand as it sounds. My father is an airline pilot. Needless to say it happen.

Today, I wanted to get a bigger box jump than I ever had before. Box jumps, for some reason, scare the crap out of me. I decided that I was going use my determination to get at least half my height. I am 62 inches. For those of you that are very bad at math, I was attempting to get to a 31 inch box jump. I know that is not very high when the Jacks and Seans of the world are jumping north of 53 inches but my previous jump was 20 inches.

I wanted to do it when no one else was around because, well I thought I was going to fail. I did not fail, I got 32 inches. I did however have someone walk in on me while I was doing it, though. The guy that owns the yoga studio came over to ask me to turn down the music. He said that Eminem's lyrics were not conducive to relaxing. He then asked me what I was doing. I said jumping on that, and pointed to the above box with plates on top of it. He asked why. I did not really have an answer for him, I just said because that is what we do.

sweat wicking

2011-03-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

I have started to move away from sweat wicking attire. I have found that although, it is nice that the shirts, socks, pant, etc. want to remove the sweat from my body, it is for very selfish reasons.

My sweat wicking clothes do it because they like the smell. Yes, folks my sweat wicking clothes have the same philosophy as my little dog. They think that it smells lovely and want to smell like that at all times. They are amazingly skilled at holding on to my lovely post WOD smell. I can wash them in hot water, bleach, or vinegar... the oh de post WOD continues to linger. I have Febrezed them with no change other than they have little speckled stains of Febreze all over them now.

I have purchased a shirt from Lululemon that has magical silver thread that prevents stinkyness. The jury is still out on that shirt; but I also have issue with spending that much money on a t-shirt.

I am now going to just buy American Apparel Cotton tees. True, I might be soaked at the end of a workout but at least it is better than stinking before I start.

Here is a photo of my little dog that loves the smell of post WOD attire.

Just like eating a shoe

2011-03-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

A little while back I bought a tun of grass fed Paleo Kits. The flavor is good but the meat is so tough my jaw hurts after eating a couple of bites. It is almost like eating a well seasoned shoe. I usually end up digging through and pulling out the nuts and the one strawberry provided. I think we still have several left in the pantry. I just can not bring myself to buy any more of them.

I think I might start making my own. I recently was informed, through social media, that there is a thing called Jerky of the Month. It has free shipping. I might just give it a shot. I need an easy to carry snack so I do not turn in to a huge grump. This is especially important during wedding season. Reception food is never paleo.