1000 Rep Challenge

I've been trying to find a new normal the past few months. While I was never a particularly good CrossFit athlete, I did show up regularly and I put a lot of time and effort into it. It was pretty much the only thing I had left of my "old life," since I don't work in my old industry or live in New York anymore. I thought that having a new goal to work towards might help me feel a little more grounded. I was at my happiest while training for that strongman competition, which as you know, I was unable to do because I threw my back out. It's still acting up and some days are really discouraging.

Recently I came across Jeremy Thiel's 1000 rep challenge. Not entirely sure how I found it but I did drop-in at CrossFit Central when I used to go to Austin for business trips so maybe that has something to do with it. Anywho, I decided to do it. It's an 8 week program working up towards 1000 push-ups in one day. Each week you are to do a prescribed number of push-ups on a daily basis. You gradually increase the number of push-ups each week. This week we are doing 22 push-ups each day.

The push-up has always been a weak spot for me. I straight up could not do one before CrossFit. Then I developed really crappy form doing them so my CFID coaches made me switch to box push-ups. That was pretty humbling after 4 years of CrossFit, but it thankfully taught me a lot. Now I can do four chest to deck push-ups at a time. I got all 22 done this morning before I got dressed for school by splitting them up. It's going to be pretty fucking awesome when I work up to the 1,000 in one day (100 each hour for 10 hours.)

I'm going to admit that I am terrible at following through on things. I get the end result done because I do what I say I'm going to do, but I lack consistency. For example, I will skip a significant number of long runs and then run an ultramarathon. I have never followed my carefully paced out project plans, and always did ungodly amounts of work every 2-3 weeks to catch up. I want to show up for myself and prove that I can commit to something and actually do it. I've been listening to the Working Against Gravity podcast, which I absolutely love, and Michael and Adee discuss the importance of setting a goal and following through on it. By achieving the goal, you prove to yourself that you are able to commit to yourself.

I looked at some other challenges and I had an honest chat with myself and acknowledged that I'm just not in a place where I can do a #75hard. I tend to choose the hardest thing I can think of (like deciding to run a 50K instead of a half marathon) and perhaps that's why I don't commit to the process. I think the 1000 rep challenge is something I can reasonably commit to because while the 143 push-up days seem pretty daunting now, it's something I am building up to. And it takes a heck of a lot less time to do 143 push-ups than it does to sit in Atlanta traffic heading to and from a box where I was easily spending 2-3 hours.

I printed out the challenge tracker and taped them in my bathroom as a reminder to get it done. 

Weight Loss Wednesday 10.3.18

I signed up to participate in Street Parking's fall nutrition challenge. It uses their templates, a food list, and a points tracking system. I want something to hold me accountable to cleaning up my diet and getting me to eat balanced meals at regular intervals, and this challenge looked like it would fit the bill. I have already had to bite my tongue several times because I have a lot of opinions about their rules and banned items. I remind myself that it's their company/program's challenge and no one is making me do it. This is a learning experience for me and something to push me outside of my comfort zone.

We submitted starting photos and stats on Monday, October 1. These photos are cropped but not otherwise edited. Lord, do I miss the structure edit function!

Weight Loss Wednesday 8.1.18

I won the Affinity Athletic Summer Shred Challenge! Honest to goodness, came in first place! I made some pretty good progress but I actually only lost about a pound between April 29, 2018 and July 22, 2018.

My before photos are below with my hair up. I took two sets - one neutral and one letting it all hang out. I weighed 152.2 that weekend.

These three photos were taken standing in a neutral position. I wasn't sticking my tummy out and I wasn't flexing. I took them with the auto setting on my iPhone.

I checked the rules of the challenge before taking these photos and we were allowed to make ourselves look as chunky as we wanted. I made sure to eat a lot the night before and reverse flex as much as possible. These are the photos I officially submitted as my before photos.

These are my after photos on July 22. The pilot took them for me. I am flexing. I weighed 151 lbs.

So what actually changed?

1. Body Fat: My body fat percentage lowered from 23.1% to 22.5%. I have increased muscle definition and my back fat has reduced. I learned it's pretty hard to manipulate a back fat photo no matter how hard you flex!

2. Training: I go to CrossFit four days a week. I usually workout for about two hours. I go to class, I do some physical therapy exercises, I do programming I get from my coach to work on my weaknesses, and I do the "extra piece" if I have the time. 

3. Diet: I initially lowered my calories from ~2,300 to ~1,600. Now I'm back up to ~1,900 - 2,000. My estimated maintenance calories are around 2,000 so I'd like to hang out here for a while to see if I can continue to recomp.

Front Squats and Reflections on Life

Things have been really hard for me lately. I was hoping that I'd bounce back quickly after my attack in May, but it's been much slower progress than I had hoped. Just now I took Frank out to the grass directly in front of my apartment and I was genuinely scared. I stood out there, standing as tall as possible, and repeating, "I have a 165# front squat and a taser - no one is fucking with me ever again." I keep my taser on and ready and I don't go out after dark without it. Today I ran errands alone in Atlanta for the first time since early June and I was scared to walk across parking lots in broad daylight. It makes me so angry because I feel so weak.

I was laid off (again) and my last day on the job is July 31. Thankfully my role was extended past the last day of the fiscal year (May 29), but I've been rejected from internal positions that I really thought I had a strong chance of getting. It's been frustrating because the feedback I've received has been basically, "We think you're great, but since so many people got laid off this year, the applicant pools are huge and competitive and you just weren't the best, but you were totally number 2." I've been getting pissed off because after defining myself by my work for so long, I now feel that another thing has been taken away from me and it's out of my control. 

I've been acting really negative and taking it out on my wonderful boyfriend, who is a saint to put up with me. Today's his birthday so you should wish him a happy birthday if you know him and haven't done so yet. Even going back up to NY for two weeks didn't help make me feel better. It's like the joy has been sucked right out of my life and I'm stuck in this cycle of feeling and acting like a victim. Even after being beaten and losing my job, this year is actually much better than 2009-2012, and I made it through all that. I feel like I've lost perspective.

My blog photographer, aka my mom, did not return to Atlanta with me, so I'm experimenting with the iPhone timer.

Burpee Challenge

Full disclosure: I stole this idea from CrossFit Central LI

I am partaking in a burpee challenge. Each day for 100 days, I do the number of burpees as the number of days in the challenge. So 1 burpee on the 1st day, 2 burpees on the second day, and so on. I started on June 1 and I finish on September 8. And I'm actually holding myself accountable because I tend to start a lot of things and then don't bother to follow through.

Why have I voluntarily signed myself up to do a burpee challenge alone? I want to see if this small additional amount of work adds up to anything significant.

It hasn't been bad so far. I forgot to do them Saturday but we did 10 burpees as part of the warm-up. I don't believe in cheating so I did an additional 7 yesterday. From what I understand, the Central LI challenge allowed participants to make up missed days.

Check back in with me once we get over 20 a day and perhaps I'll be telling a different tale.

Rest, a Four Letter Word and Other Challenges

Today is my rest day and I am already feeling anxious and restless. I don't like to rest, I find it difficult to sleep, and I prefer to be moving. But you don't get stronger if you don't let your muscles recover, so today I'm taking the day off from CrossFit and will likely find myself running instead.

December is a new month and it's time to challenge myself.

Yesterday, December 1, I returned to my apartment with two closets full of clean clothing and one closet full of clean linens. Can I go until December 22 without doing laundry?

Yes, my studio apartment has 3 closets.

I might not have 18 sports bras and I know I have to buy some black tights, but otherwise I think I've got this.