Warning: Part of this blog contains a mini-rant. Okay, I’ll keep it to a minimum. Lately, my professional life has been feeling like a rat race/groundhog’s day/whatever you want to call it – I’ve hustlin’ countless hours on the computer and my thoughts aren’t streamlining into blog posts as I’d hope they would this week. So much is going on! I don’t know about you, but the daylight saving switch makes me feel like I’m entering the Twilight Zone. As in, every time the clocks fall back or springs forward my work load/pace switches into over drive and I’m left scrambling to get the job done. Maybe it’s a PR thing? Who knows…
So where have I been? For starters, I took last Wednesday off to attend the SF Giants’ Victory Parade.
Fast forward to Saturday: Dave and I attended an epic wedding. It was so perfect it almost was silly. The bride and groom were as cute as could be. We both felt so honored to be a part of their love fest.
Sunday was an epic relaxation day and it was exactly what I needed. There’s something to be said to vegging on the couch for a solid block of time and completely turning off your brain. o_O Consequentially, Sundays have turned into our meal planning day for the week and I’ll start posting our meal plans to give you an idea of what we eat/buy. Typically, we cook a laborious meal on Sunday and plan for shorter, easier meals during the week. Let me tell you, good people – you need to purchase these three cookbooks. They will change your life. Seriously, they have become valuable resources in our kitchen:
- Well Fed: Paleo Recipes For People Who Love To Eat – Melissa Joulwan
- Practical Paleo – Diane Sanfilippo
- Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook: Real Food for Real Life – Sarah Fragoso
It’s no accident the first book is on the top of my list. The recipes never cease to amaze me. Sunday’s dinner was her Chocolate Chili. OH MY…You have to try. I don’t think I’ll ever want another type of chili again. It’s that good.
Switching gears to CrossFit. The last WOD I posted wasn’t so hot, so I’ve been eager to get back in the box and redeem myself.
I dragged myself to the box on Friday morning and was surprised by a little burner warm-up that nearly did me in. Heavy prowler pushes in the dark plus cold weather is not the business, especially when your WOD looks like this:
- 15m OH walking Lunge (25 lbs)
- 10 pushup
- AMRAP 10min
Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit on this one. Sure, the warm-up of heavy/spirit pushes made my quads turn to goo, but the actual WOD was pretty fun. I managed nine rounds. Not bad…
Yesterday’s WOD I found the start of my redemption road:
- 9-7-5
- Power Clean (95 lbs)
- DB Manmakers (25 lbs)
This might not seem like much, but I was drenched in sweat when it was all said and done. The RX programming called for muscle-ups and to be honest, I’m sure they are much easier than “manmakers”:
This video makes me LOL. Love the visor…
Today I was reminded of the reasons I love CrossFit. I can write a whole blog post about the mental gains I’ve been since joining this community, but the real magic for me lies in seeing significant strength improvement. Our class started off with a 400m farmer’s carry. I carried 1.5 pood kettle bells and nearly ripped open my entire palm, yet I felt like the incredible hulk. That, or, a grocery carrying champ.
Once we made it back into the box we went after our 1 rep max for OH squats. I haven’t attempted and OH squat max since the first month I tried CrossFit nearly ten months ago. I think I was barely making strides with 45 lbs. Barely. Today, I can proudly say I hit 105 lbs. Not going to lie, I felt like a badass hitting that weight. I was so happy and I’m sure I had a stupid grin on my face for the rest of the class…
Psych! There was no smiling because we still had our “surprise” element. Drum roll, please… 5 burpees on every 30 seconds for 8 minutes. Yes. Eighty burpees. BOOM. I’m sure I’ll regret mentioning this in the future, but I kind of like burpees and feel like it’s becoming my ninja movement…Needless to say, I was very satisfied leaving the box this morning.
Remember my October goals? I should probably give you an update on those and set-up something up for November:
- Practice double-unders everyday for 10 minutes – yeah this didn’t happen 🙁 BUT I did purchase the DU training kit from Again Faster to motivate me through Novemeber
- 5 kipping pull-ups – Honestly, haven’t tested this out, but it’s now November so it doesn’t count either way…
- 5 new paleo recipes – Done!
- Film a cooking session with one of my fellow Rebelles – Couldn’t make it happen, but we’ll film something for the holidays.
- Finish reading “The Happiness Project” – Sadly, no. This book is great, but boy does it make me fall asleep!
What’s my grade? I’d give myself a C- for the month. Poor.
Here’s hoping for a better report card in November:
- 10 unbroken double-unders
- 5 kipping pull-ups
- Film cooking video with my Rebelles
- 10 push-ups
- Finish reading “The Happiness Project“
- Post 3 vlogs
Phew, that was a lot to catch up on, and I’ll do my best at keeping you all updated – even with quick updates.