April 2016 Goals

Life and Wellness goals: I slept more in April than I think I have in the rest of 2016. It was glorious. I've even managed to go to sleep without taking anything more than a few times. I've spent time with friends and enjoyed some time at the pool, because this is Georgia and yes, it is already pool season. The boyfriend and I have made our relationship even better, which is fantastic. Life is good and I am happy.

Pure Barre Goal: I took class 4 times in April, including the Row. Tone. Om. class in Piedmont Park. That's 35 classes in 2016. I bought myself a class pack and I'll probably use the 20 classes by the end of August.

CrossFit Goal: 45/200 WODs. I went to CrossFit 11 times this month. It is so awesome to be back in the box on a regular basis. I PR'd my hang power clean at 135# (10# PR) and got my very first strict pull-up. I've gotten 2 more since then. I'm also loving the opportunity to see my CrossFit friends on a regular basis and being included in fun things outside of the gym. Being away all of the time sucked because I felt like I wasn't a part of the community anymore.

Mileage: I ran 20 miles this month, including a 5K. I love my Garmin 360 and my Brooks Ghost 8s. You can also follow me on Strava, although I'm not exactly sure what that means.

Atlanta Dogwood Festival Mimosa 5K

The boyfriend and I ran a 5K a couple of weekends ago. We'd been talking about running a race together and chose the Atlanta Dogwood Festival Mimosa 5K because of it's location. We live right near Piedmont Park so it was super easy to walk to the starting line.

That 8 AM start time kind of sucked. It's been pretty warm in Atlanta this month but the high for April 9 was 62 degrees. It was like 40 degrees when we woke up. Even though it was cold, I decided to wear my brown Oiselle Roga shorts. I love these running shorts and I got them for a sick discount because apparently no one but me wants poop brown shorts. Last summer, I went to our local running store to try a pair on and I had to size up from the size 6 because they were too small for my booty. I bought the size 8 but had to tie them tight around the waist. Now that I've lost weight, the waistband is getting too large and I might have to accept that Roga shorts aren't made for runners with small waists and large bums. I completed the outfit with a Fabletics long-sleeved tech top and my Saucony racing flats.

Row. Tone. Om.

Last Saturday I went to Row. Tone. Om. in Piedmont Park. It was a 90 minute circuit class combining Orangetheory, Pure Barre Virginia Highland, and Highland Yoga.

Eat the Bear Chocolate Peanut Butter

I want to like Eat the Bear Chocolate Peanut Butter protein powder. I love peanut butter cups - Reece's, Justin's, Trader Joe's, the ones a Pure Barre VaHi client homemade and brought in for class - they are all delicious. Unfortunately ETB's protein powder is not. It's not horrendous, but I wouldn't describe it as good tasting. It does taste better mixed with milk.

What it lacks in taste, it makes up for by being super convenient. ETB sells travel packs that come with five pouches of your choice and a mini Blender Bottle. These are perfect for work travel. I bring the shaker and some pouches when I travel for work and will probably order more because it's so much better than bagging scoops from my protein powder tub.

I like the company Eat the Bear so I'm hoping they make some improvements to this protein powder because I'd drink it at every meal if it actually tasted like a Reece's peanut butter cup. 

Weight Loss Wednesday 4.6.16

This morning I woke up and I was sore all over. Yesterday's WOD was a timed 30 calorie row, rest, and then 1000 m run, 30-20-10 push press (95/65) and toes to bar, finished with another 1000 m run. It was brutal and it was low carb day. So when I woke up this morning, I remembered it was the day after low carb day and was psyched to see my progress. I realized I looked pretty damn lean and hopped on the scale - 142.2 lbs! Then I quickly texted the boyfriend to see if he could take some progress photos of me before he left for work.

Today is high carb day and I am so thankful because I woke up so hungry. I felt satiated when I went to bed last night but I woke up with a mission to eat. Everyone's numbers are different but Jenna has me on this carb cycling plan and high carb day is 300 GRAMS OF CARBOHYDRATES! Today will be filled with such joy in the form of harvest snaps, milk, and rice.

Being a Little More Green

I've recently discovered my love for the show Archer after hearing for years that I would really like it. I'm on season 3 and I started watching on Friday night. I am obsessed. So somewhere between then and now, I learned that the character Lana is really into the environment, and I was like, shit, remember when I was really into the environment? I once tried to convince my parents to let me start a compost pile in the backyard. Now I don't even recycle. I had no idea that there are recycling bins behind the dumpsters for the entire first year I lived in my apartment complex. That's pretty bad.

But there's good news - I am no longer chucking 72 aluminum cans in the dumpster each week (that comes out to 3 cases - and y'all thought I was kidding when I said I was addicted to La Croix) because my boyfriend surprised me with the best gift ever - a SodaStream! I can drink as much seltzer as my little heart desires in the reusable bottles. Jeremy told me he bought it for me because he was tired of seeing the trail of La Croix cans I leave in my wake. Just marking my territory...

Sadly, I can only keep the flowers on the table when I am home because I have curious dogs.

I treated myself to a Pure Barre Tervis the other day and I am thrilled because I finally solved my MyFitnessPal water problem. So the damn app only tracks water in cups. I always bought 1.5 liter bottles of water at Publix. I would get annoyed with the conversion and forget to track my water intake and then end up having to guess because my memory has been shot to hell from lack of sleep and stress over a dog who simply refuses to become house-trained. The Tervis is 24 oz and has hash marks for every 8 oz. I fill it up with seltzer from the SodaStream and make this little reminder in my Day Designer. I'm trying to avoid drinking directly out of the SodaStream bottles because they are not dishwash safe and I want to minimize handwashing them because I refuse to do that ish since I moved out of NYC.

Protein Hacks

I'm pretty good about hitting my protein numbers if I plan my meals around my protein sources, but I'm terrible at getting close to 135g of protein if I eat by intuition. I just want to eat carbs. I've been looking for quick hacks to get protein without relying on extra protein shakes and found two simple ways to help you reach your protein goals.

Add egg whites your eggs. Well duh. I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner. I like to eat two scrambled eggs in the morning. I don't use egg beaters because I like the taste of actual eggs, but today I added liquid egg whites. I was able to increase the volume of food and add 10 grams of protein without additional carbs or fats. Trader Joe's cage-free liquid egg whites's macros are 5 P, 0 C, 0 Fat for 46 grams/3 tablespoons.

Cook up a pound of spicy ground turkey. I buy the Trader Joe's regular, whatever ground turkey meat. I've tried the lean kind and the all-white meat kind and they are too dry for my taste. I season the meat with Flavor God Everything Spicy and Chipotle. Since it's already cooked, it's super convenient to use throughout the day. Sometimes I add it to breakfast, other times I have it for lunch or a snack. One ounce of cooked ground turkey is 8 P, 0 C, 3 F. Two ounces is great with eggs. I eat closer to 7 ounces if I'm eating it for lunch.

March 2016 Goals

This month was humbling. I wanted to be someone who could accomplish a ton of things and be a ladyboss, but it became apparent that I had too many things on my plate. The quality of my work at my real job suffered. I was constantly tired. I even got so stressed out, I yelled at my dogs. I don't want to be a person who yells at her dogs. Even when one of them refuses to potty outside and the other refuses to stay outside long enough for the first one to consider going potty. I accidentally tazed myself this morning. I was so tired and it was 4 AM and instead of pressing the button that locks Frank's retracting leash, I pressed the button on my taser and I tazed the shit out of my hand. I was so tired that it took me a few moments to even realize where the pain was coming from. It was in that exact moment that I knew I had made the right decision. My first priority is sleeping enough to succeed at my job and to be a good dog momma.

I withdrew from my GMAT class because it became painfully obvious that I am significantly behind in the math content. Once I have become proficient enough in the work that pays my salary, I am going to get myself a math tutor. Veritas Prep told me I can re-enroll without penalty whenever I'm ready. I have also put in my notice at Pure Barre and will only work a few shifts this April. The 4 AM wake up on Wednesday and Thursday was killing me, especially since I produce my best work between 6 and 10 AM. By the time I got home, I couldn't concentrate and frequently needed a nap. I was also late for my shrink every Thursday. I am disappointed that I didn't get to enjoy a free membership. It seemed like I was asked to cover a shift every time I signed up for class - like legit, Hey we see you're signed up to take the 4:45 PM. Can you show up at 4 and leave at 8? I'm a hard worker and I understand that helping to pick up weights is a small sacrifice to make for free class, but I didn't want to get pulled in to cover the desk every time I went near the studio. I have a relatively flexible work schedule that allows me to exercise during a typical work day but that's only because I make up that hour before 9 AM or after 6 PM. It doesn't mean that I'm free to work 4 hours in the middle of the day or that I can drop everything to handle an apparel shipment at 11 AM. If it sounds like I'm pissed, it's because I am. I'm a big fan of the studio and the owners and everyone who works there, but working there isn't the right thing for me anymore. I'm going to buy myself a class pack and go back to being a client.

Life and Wellness goals: FAILED. I didn't sleep enough and I certainly didn't live in the moment because I was miserable and panicking on a regular basis. I got so stressed out that I tried to find things to give up that weren't GMAT or Pure Barre so I told Jenna I needed a break from nutrition coaching. Even thinking about my macros changing made me freak out. The good news is that I'm back on track and have a carb cycling and workout plan set for the month of April.

I'm looking pretty lean but I'm still working on losing more body fat.

CrossFit Open 16.5

One of CrossFit's biggest selling points for me is measurable fitness. You can track your improvements over time and compare performance the same way you can for running, except you get to do things other than race the same distance over and over again. Don't get me wrong - I love running, but racing the same distances slowly turned me a little insane and I started resenting running in general. In CrossFit, we retest workouts to measure our growth and some of those workouts are evil. One such evil workout was 14.5 - a descending ladder of thrusters* and burpees over the bar. We got to do it all over again as 16.5.

*A thruster combines a front squat with a push press. Most people hate them.

Workout 16.5

21-18-15-12-9-6-3:

Thrusters

Burpees

M 95 lb.      F 65 lb.

This is me doing 14.5. I had never done thrusters at 65# before. It was really heavy and I got a lot of no reps. I completed the workout in 20:23, which was actually kind of a good time I learned afterwards. Two years later, I finished the same workout in 14:44. That's 5 minutes and 39 seconds less. It was still a vicious workout, and it should never get any easier because the fitter you get, the faster you go.

Instead of struggling to get three thrusters in a row, I managed to complete the entire workout without a no rep. My coach Eric was my judge and we discussed pacing before my heat. We decided that I should break up the reps as follows: 7-7-7 thrusters & burpees, 6-6-6 thrusters & burpees, 5-5-5 thrusters & burpees, 4-4-4 thrusters 6-6 burpees, 5-4 thrusters 9 burpees, 6 thrusters & burpees, 3 thrusters & burpees.

I would say that the hardest set was the 5-5-5 and I got sloppy on the thrusters. I had to get my head out of my ass, refocus, and was able to complete the remaining thrusters with a lot better form. Once I got through the 12s, I knew I was so close to finishing and had to just get through it. I used my motivational phrases (I like to scream HUNT and MURICA) to knock out the remaining reps.

Today marks the end of the 2016 CrossFit Open. The best CrossFitters will go onto Regionals and compete for a chance at the Games, but most of us end our season today. I'm proud of my performance this year because I got chest 2 bar pull ups for the first time and I proved to myself that I am in fact fitter today than I was in 2014. The Open reveals your weaknesses, affirms your hard work, and best of all - brings the community together for 5 weeks.

CrossFit Open 16.4

If you're wondering what happened to 16.3 - I completed my 10 snatches at 55# and took my Rx score. 2017 will be my year for bar muscle ups.

Workout 16.4

13-min. AMRAP:

55 deadlifts

55 wall-ball shots

55-calorie row

55 handstand push-ups

M 225 lb. / 20-lb. ball

F  155 lb. / 14-lb. ball

I didn't watch the 16.4 announcement because I was drinking margaritas in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. (I don't care what day it is - every celebration should have margaritas.) I did check the workout and decided that I shouldn't stay out past 1 AM. Dare I say that I may actually be adulting?

So Tuesday's WOD was 17 minutes to run a mile followed by an ascending later of body weight deadlifts and burpee box jumps (2,4,6,8...) My mile took 7:04 minutes and I was able to get through the set of 10s plus 3 deadlifts using 145#. This told me that I was going to at least complete the deadlifts in 16.4 because I didn't need to sprint a mile before picking up the barbell. I was most worried about the wallballs because those are not my strength. Women and men all practice with a 10 ft target at CrossFit Identity, but the Open requires women to only hit a 9 ft target, which feels glorious. I didn't receive a single no rep during the 55 wallballs. I did sets of 10, 10, 10, 15, 10. I like to break them up before I start getting sloppy and discouraged. I was happy that I got to the row and I heard from my CFID family's cheers that I was doing well. At that point I was feeling good and knew that I could just churn it out. My coach Eric showed me that you can take the cap off the side of a C2 rower and watch the flywheel nob rotate. It's very relaxing. I finished the row at 11:29 (my official tiebreak score) and had 91 seconds to attempt handstand push-ups. You might remember that I briefly had handstand push-ups before last year's open but I failed to get a single rep during 15.3 and I haven't gotten one since. I wasn't able to lock out during 16.4 but I have a feeling those HSPUs will return shortly.

Overall, I am happy with my score of 165 (11:29 tiebreak.) Could I have gotten a HSPU? Maybe if I had practiced beforehand. I went into the workout with no expectations and only the desire to work hard and consistently for the 13 minutes. Mission accomplished.