Days 58 and 59

I apologize for not posting. In the midst of hurting my back, I forgot Monday night. Yesterday I was exhausted so just hit the hay. Monday CF went Rx...tweeked my back a bit more...total fail. Food was fine. No cheats. Typical meals that I have been eating all day. Tuesday I called out of work cause I could barely walk or bend over, so sitting for a lot of hours would have been out of the question (even right now, when I hit the 30 minute mark I start getting uncomfortable...it's sucky). I made an appointment with Dr. B the chiropractor from Crossfit. She got me in yesterday for my initial consult and I really enjoyed my hour with her. WE chatted about some injuries I had, past sports I had done, weird body things I have noticed...everything. Then she did her physical assessment of me. I lean to the right. My left side is more flexible than my right side. My left arm hangs closer to my body than my right. And the real kicker? I carry 16 pounds more of my weight on my left side than my right side (at most it should be 5lbs). After some x-rays of the spine, we scheduled a follow-up visit for Thursday to review the findings.

Last night we ate out at 677 Prime. Not gonna lie. Let the diet go right out the window. We were eating for free, and I was gonna enjoy it. I did find myself eating around things I shouldn't have, but that's not to say the whole meal was paleo, let's be honest...I hate half of my cheesecake dessert and I liked it :) Other than that, meals and small snacks were all paleo the last 2 days.

Still resting from CF but will probably go to games night tomorrow (Thursday) just to run around...moving doesn't hurt to bad, it's the sitting still that hurts. And I will try to talk to the coaches about some stretching I can do and also if there are ways to modify the workouts that won't hurt me more. :) Score. Until Later tonight...happy day 60 folks.

Day 57 of 90

So last night I went bowling with some friends...the like 1030pm, black lights on, stay out til 1am type of bowling. Tons of fun. Glad I got to go out. What was even more fantastic? Sleeping til 1015am!! But I had to haul butt and get up, dressed and to the gym to be there by 11. I was there by 1040, and on a roam roller for my back. Gonna keep rolling, icing and moving to keep it going. :) I figured I would go a little light on the workout, just to spare my back a bit. The workout is below. Then I stayed for Strongman, you know...just a typical Sunday. It was kinda a clusterfuck (excuse my language) in the triple wide today. People were trying to get their WOW 12.1 done, understandable, we were trying to do a workout that involved going back and forth across, and it was just loud. No big deal. Cat did a really great job rallying the troops to pay attention and get our stuff done. After the gym, I hit the mall and grocery store. I even bought a scale to weigh food for zoning. I am still hesitant to do it, but I am wondering if it will either drive me nuts or if I will enjoy it. We will see. I think it's gonna take a ton of convincing by my partner in crime (Kim "the bad ass" Seevers) to do it. I think her saying "10 pounds in 1 month" might do the trick. We will see though.

So here's what we did today.

CF WOD:

I. Burgener Warm-up

II. Front squat 3-3-3-3

-65, 85, 105, 115 (definitely could go heavier, was saving my back)

III. 3 rounds for time (I am writing the scaled first/what i did, then the actual)

-100 single unders (50 DU)

-25 knees to chest (25 C2B)

-50 Walking lunges w/ 15lb plate (Rx = 25lb)

Strongman

I. "medley WOD" - 3 rounds for time (with the mess we had in the triple we got 2 done)

-4 balistic blocks

-keg carry (75lbs)

-Farmers Carry (70lbs KB)

Round 1 - 1:28, Round 2 - 1:05

Food:

Today was an interesting day. I don't fast, but waking up at 10:15 and heading straight to the gym/running errands without snacks (well I grabbed a handful of cashews on my way to the grocery store) = Chiplotle at 4:30pm for the first meal of the day. Took a nap at 5pm...woke up about 6pm and was starving. So I started in on my sauce for the week. This weeks spaghetti sauce had 99% ground turkey, chicken sausage, zucchini, onions, mushrooms, cauliflower and spinach. I'm trying to up my veggie intake for the week :) So I had a bowl of that with spaghetti squash for dinner. Then to round out the evening, I got So Delicious Vanilla Bean. Even better than the chocolate!! Had that and a handful of cashews and I am getting ready for bed :)

Successful weekend, getting ready for a week 3 of rotation. FOUR WEEKS LEFT!

Day 56 of 90

Saturday's are always wonderful when nothing is planned. Slept in (til 9 haha), did some research, cleaned the apartment, did some more research...just a quiet day by myself :) so fantastic. The only problem with all that? Lingering around the house doing work and such means I am going to want to munch and eat. This morning started out very good, very paleo. Snacks were good. No lunch cause I wasn't terribly hungry, and about 2pm, I wanted to eat a snack, but since I hadn't been to the grocery store, I made a PLD (Poor Life Decision...coined that one a few years back during pharmacy school...) and heated up a Lean Cuisine Spinach and Artichoke dip w/ a pita. Fail. Then for dinner, it was getting late, still didn't hit the grocery store and wanted something quick, so I ordered chinese tonight. Shrimp with mixed veggies. I ate the rice too :( then I had the egg roll they gave me, and I ordered hot and sour soup. All together just a fail. First bad eating day of the week. Back on the wagon tomorrow (hopefully nobody will want sushi, cause I have been craving it since last week...haha)

CF: rest day (lower back still a little achey)

Food:

Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 bacon, chopped broccoli

Snack - apple with almond butter

Lunch - 2 dill pickles, Lean Cuisine fail

Dinner - chinese fail

Snack - trail mix because I was out bowling and it was late...like 11:15pm

Oh well, tomorrow is Sunday. A new day. Gotta be better than yesterday :)

Day 55 of 90

Today was Friday, had a really great day at rotation! :) After week 2, it's fantastic.

Today my new Inov8's came in the mail. I'm excited to try them out on Sunday...hopefully my back will be back in business by then...more on that later.

I hit CF today at 3pm cause I got out of work early. I was unsuccessful searching for a new water bottle at Target, but I need to find one. My camelback is dying soon. Anyways...today was the workout for WOW #1. Workout of the Week for the open (world wide competition that CFer's can sign up to do...I did not sign up). So it was an AMRAP of jumping burpees. Felt okay, took my time, finshed 54 total, arches of my feet cramped up so lacrosse ball rolled them out during the next person completing there's, and then as I went to start WOD #2 of the day with a kettlebell, I realized my lower back hurt! What the hell!! I only did burpees! There was no reason for that pain...but as I sit here writing this, there is an ice pack on my back. I'm nervous for how it is going to feel when I wake up tomorrow...

Anyways, here's how the day panned out:

CF

I. Russian Gymnastics day 1

II. WOW # 1 - 7 Minute AMRAP Jumping Burpees (completed #54)

II. WOD - partner workout 1 minute AMRAPs for 2 rounds (because of time, it should have been 3 rounds...and I did it with 2 other people because of an odd number of people in class, so I counted how many movements/ calories I accumulated in the 10 minutes)

-Kettlebell Swings - 35lbs

-Ring rows

-Wall balls

-Lunges

-Rowing for calories

Food:

Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 bacon, broccoli

Lunch - salad with grilled chicken, Larabar (Chocolate chip brownie I think? Still like the Apple Pie one best!!)

Post-WOD Protein Shake

Dinner - Buffalo chicken pizza, salad

Snack - So Delicious Chocolate "ice cream"

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

-same crust that I have previously made

-Chicken

-cut chicken into pieces

-melt 1/4 cup coconut oil in microwave

-add 1/4 cup of Frank's Red Hot, garlic powder and cayenne powder if wanted and wisk

together

-Cook chicken in skillet

-Once cooked, add sauce and let simmer

-Paleo Ranch Sauce (this did NOT come out like I expected, but had good taste and added good herbs to the dish)

-2-3 tablespoons of Ghee

-lemon juice

-garlic powder, onion powder, dill, parsley, pepper

-Melt ghee with lemon juice

-add spices and wisk together

-pour on top when putting topped pizza into oven (like after the crust has baked for 10

minutes, you've topped it and are about to bake it for another 10-15 minutes)

Day 54 of 90

Thursday, Thursday...what a day...worked, napped, gymmed. :)

CF:

I. Russian gymnastics day 2

II. "Annie" 50-40-30-20-10

-double unders (aka single unders for me)

-abmat situps

III. Press 5-5-5-5

-55, 65, 75, 97 (NEW PR! Woo!!)

IV. "Accumulate" 3 minutes L-sit

-yeah it was hard...okay...maybe not exactly 3 minutes who know

Then I hit Games Night! We played Hoover ball (an okay game...got the wind knocked out of my by a 10 lb medicine ball coming out of the air across the net...haha) then moved to an all time games night favorite...dodge ball. I felt like I was getting better at being able to jump, dodge and catch from the first time we played a month and a half ago? Felt good :)

Food:

Breakfast - 3 eggs, 2 bacon, chopped broccoli

Snack - Lara bar - Apple Pie...best one I've had yet! Definitely will be getting more of these

Lunch - Salad with grilled chicken

Snack - cashews, fruit twist

Post-WOD Protein Shake

Dinner - spicy stuffed pepper and left over meat mix :)

Tomorrow I want to make buffalo chicken tenders, so we'll see how that goes. :) Maybe I'll go out for sushi with some friends. We shall see. But it is gonna be Friday!!!

Day 53 of 90

Today was like any other day...uneventful. After rotation, I had a few meetings, and the last one was at the gym. People that are apart of the 90 day challenge, and were kinda feeling the slump of hitting the midpoint/day 50 got together to discuss challenges, problems, questions. It was nice to hear people are all having struggles, and I'm not alone in that boat. I haven't felt deprived or anything, but I do slip up on occasion. Today I got a caramel machiatto just cause I wanted to. For no reason really. Just because. But other are experiencing the same issues. Also within the discussion, we chatted a little about Zoning. While Paleo is about the quality food you are eating, zoning is about the quantity of food you are eating. You may have noticed in the past few weeks, some of my posts have mentioned not feeling hungry at night, or that I may be over eating in some capacity, so I jumped at this chance to learn more about the zone, have my own blocks set up, and learn a little more. I had been thinking maybe zoning might be a new way to go to keep the success of the 90 day challenge going...so here it was...right in my face...

After the meeting I sat down with Jay and asked him to help me out a little. We decided that I would be at 15 blocks, and he set up my day. 4-2-3-2-4 That's the blocks that I should be eating at each meal. It breaks down the protein, carbohydrates, and fat needed for each meal. And for each meal, I have to have that number of each category in the meal. It seems like it is going to be a lot of food, which I am very nervous about. But I will have to finagle some recipes, such as making a salad to meet some blocks, rather than shoveling down 4 cups of spinach. I think that over the next 3 days I am going to look into getting some ideas, learning more about things I eat now, and how they fit into the zones (ie: 1 apple =2 blocks) and plan for starting on Sunday with the zone. I'll also have to get a scale so I can weigh my meat and other stuff appropriately. Cause if I am going to do it, I'm doing it right.

Here is a website with some more information on it: http://journal.crossfit.com/2004/05/zone-meal-plans-crossfit-journ.tpl and an article that goes along with it breaking down a lot of the foods and their ratings: http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf

So Wednesday = rest day as normal, so no CF today

Food:

Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 bacon, collard greens

Snack - Pecan Pie luna bar

Lunch - salad with grilled chicken

Snack - trail mix

Dinner - chicken meatballs, sauce, sauteed kale

Snack - apple with almond butter :)

Day 52 of 90

So I have made it through day 52. Today I got out of rotation early, napped, and made chicken meatballs before I hit CF tonight. They were so stinkin good!! And at CF I hit a PR on my back squat!! 225 pounds!!! That's more than I weigh now!! Totally pumped for the night! :)

CF:

I. Russian Gymnastics Day 2

II. 5-3-1 back squats (87.5%, 92.5%, 100%) max, then 1 round of 50% AMRAP

-completed 135, 175, 225

III. 10 minutes AMRAP pull ups- did ring rows

-completed 138 reps

IV. Tabata rowing - finshed 758m in the 8 rounds

Food:

Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 bacon, collard greens

Lunch - Spicy Stuff Pepper

Post-WOD Protein shake

Dinner - chicken meatballs, sauce, kale and brussel sprout mix

Snack - So Delicious chocolate "ice cream"

Chicken Meatballs

1 zucchini chopped

2 carrots chopped

1/2 cup parsley

3 medium garlic cloves

1/4 cup almond meal

1 egg

1 package ground chicken

salt

ground pepper

chili powder (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Chop ingredients (can use food processor, I like my veggies noticable)

3. Add zucchini, carrots, parsley and garlic together and mix.

4. Add almond flour, egg, and chicken and mix. I use my hands for this :)

5. Add salt, pepper and chili powder and mix some more

6. Drop tablespoon size balls onto parchment/foil lined baking sheet.

7. Bake for 23-28 minutes (mine were 33 minutes because they were a little bigger)

I got the recipe from here: http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2011/08/chicken-veggie-meatballs-with-pesto-zucchini-noodles/

It's an awesome new site I found to try a bunch of new recipes :)