2 WOD's

Fitness

I hope everyone had a good weekend! My mother-in-law was here this past week so we've been busy. Friday night we went to dinner and the casino and then we took her to the airport on Saturday. I also had piano on Saturday and afterwards, I took a 4-hour nap! tee hee

I ended up skipping my workout yesterday but did it today instead.

3-3-3-3-3 reps shoulder press
Here's how I did:
50
55
60
70
75(f)

I only got 2 reps done on 75, not the third. 75 was my previous 1-rep max so I'm pretty happy with that. I started assuming I'd end around 65.

Then I did the pull-up ladder:
"With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able."

I did this WOD back in August 2009 and did 10 rounds + 8 reps for 63 reps total.

Today, I didn't do as well. I only completed 9 full rounds plus 9 reps so 54 reps total. My shoulders were fatigued from the shoulder press but I'm also feeling a little "twinge" in my right deltoid. I don't think it's anything to be worried about but I need to be careful to not make it worse.

We went straight from the gym to the grocery store and I.felt.like.poop. I'm home now and have eaten a snack but I had to sit down at the store for a minute because I felt sick. You know the hot flash/sick/dizzy feeling? Yeah... not cool.

Read more...

Short term vs Long term Saving and Giving

Wow, so last night we saw Dave Ramsey Live! It was amazing! I highly recommend it. I can't believe we were there for almost 4 hours. It didn't seem like that long at all! He has such a high energy, is all over the stage shouting, has you stand up and sit down, etc.

You might be surprised to hear me say that I didn't learn anything new. Dave even says that everything he teaches is common sense and that's so true! He jokes that some people will realize they paid to hear what all of us already know about money. Despite this, it was well worth the price of admission!

Sometimes it's good just to be reminded and to get that encouragement. It jump starts the communication again and for us, I think that's important. I've said before that lately our finances are on serious auto-pilot. Very little thought goes into our budget each month because very little changes.

We realized something else last night too- we do not GIVE enough of our money. We work hard for it and we're kind of selfish with it- saving for our own future wants or needs. Sure, I donate to the United Way but it's not a lot and there are certainly some causes we feel passionately about like promoting healthy activities in children, taking care of animals, the benefits of reading, etc. So we're going to begin budgeting each month to donate some money to charity as well. We'll hand write a check and send it in the mail to a charity we decide to support. Here are some ideas we have right now-

*A program that supports child wellness and health
*Humane Society
*Library programs
*Adopt a child

Read more...

I just kicked my own a$$

If you didn't read the post before this, you might want to check out what I ate for lunch today.

Two words = HORRIBLE and YUMMY

But boy did I ever make up for it tonight at the gym. Seriously, it was a doozy.

Here's what I did -
25 lunges

20 pull-ups
50 box jumps (bench)
20 double unders
25 dips (assisted level 55)
20 knees to elbows
30 kb swings 30#
30 sit-ups
20 hang squat cleans 45#
25 back extensions
30 wallballs (12#)

My time was 24:09

The last time I did this was October 2009 (almost 1 year ago). There were a few differences from that day-
I did assisted pull-ups
I used the captain's chair
I did 35# kb swings (tonight all 35# dumbbells were being used)
I did 11# wallballs

So in most ways, today's WOD was more difficult. Here's the kicker- my time tonight was 24:09 and a year ago it was 29:07!  Wahoo! That's a 5-minute improvement! Most of it came from getting faster with the double unders which took a whopping 6 minutes last time and about 30 seconds this time. However, my box jumps were slower because I never focused on opening up my hips before but I really tried to do that tonight. And I can only do 5 knees to elbows at a time whereas in the Captain's chair, I probably could have done all 30 straight without any problems.

Overall, I feel a lot stronger than a year ago and that's always a good thing!

I'll tell you what though, I'm totally looking forward to our rest days tomorrow and Friday. I can really use it after 5 days of workouts. Tomorrow night (Thursday) we're seeing Dave Ramsey Live and I'm so excited! I'm leaving work at 2:30 and we're going to take the lightrail to downtown Phoenix, find a place to eat dinner and simply enjoy our evening. I can't wait!

Read more...

So bad yet oh so good

Oh yes, I'm blogging solely to draw attention to what I just ate- it was terribly bad yet oh so yummy!

Once a month a girlfriend and I go to IHOP for "breakfast" over lunch time. I love it! The conversation is wonderful, there are plenty of laughs, and it's the perfect break from the day. She's fairly healthy too and she calls this her "cheat day"... I suppose I can call it the same thing because I tell you what, I did not hold back today!

Blueberry, banana-nut pancakes
Scrambled eggs
2 strips of turkey bacon
Coffee w/ flavored creamer and sugar

Crazy right? Could I have eaten something much healthier? Absolutely! But do I care? Nope! If I'm good 80% of the time, I'm certainly going to enjoy myself the other 20%!

I've instructed my girlfriend to slap me this afternoon to wake me up because I'm sure I will be feeling this lunch soon!

Read more...

Back to Basics

Great day at the gym. I'm really sore from the last few workouts we've done, but it's a good sore! Today we talked about just having a "technical day" where we work on form, etc. I have a New Year's Resolution for 2010 to be able to do a full handstand push-up so I was really hoping to work on those tonight. But, my shoulders are really sore and I knew it wouldn't make sense to work on those tonight.

I decided to perform the 8 (of the 9) foundational movements with the 45# bar.
I did 10 reps of each and made sure my form was top notch for each one. I think it's good to do this once in a while... the weight wasn't heavy but it's a good reminder of the basics. If you can't do it with a 45# bar, it doesn't make any sense to keep adding weight.

So I did 80 reps in total tonight (10 reps each)-
Deadlift
Sumo deadlift high pull
Shoulder press
Push press
Push jerk
Front squat
Overhead squat
Clean (I used the bar, not a medicine ball)

Today I followed our lower carb-higher fat food plan strictly and I felt pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised by how long I could go before wanting to eat again. I probably waited too long actually but I really wasn't hungry. I'm hoping to keep the trend going!

My mother-in-law is here and she really wanted In-N-Out Burger tonight for dinner. We've known that she wanted to go there (it doesn's exist in Michigan) so it was inevitable. We went tonight but I got a burger protein-style (no bun) and didn't have any fries. I had water to drink and I think my meal was actually pretty good considering...

Until tomorrow,

Read more...

Blah

I don't know if I would say this was a great workout, but well, it's done and that's all that matters sometimes. Some days, that's just plain good enough.

It didn't start off great-
I'm sore from yesterday's WOD.
Today's WOD called for muscle-ups but we loaned out our rings so... not gonna happen.
My hands are tore up from the deadlifts yesterday.
I forgot our chalk at home so subbing pull-ups & dips for muscle-ups with tore up hands = not fun.

I ended up doing 9-6-3 reps:
70# thrusters
kipping pull-ups
assisted dips (55#)

Time = 9:15

It was my first time doing thrusters at 70# so I was pretty happy about that. They took me a while though. It's amazing what a difference 5# can make b/c I've done a lot of thrusters at 65#. When I do "Fran", I usually do 11 or 12 consecutive thrusters at 65# before dropping the weight. But the 70# thrusters were a lot harder. That's ok- I remember when the 65# felt impossible too.

Until tomorrow,

Read more...

Toughy

5 rounds- NOT for time so rest as needed in between rounds
3 deadlifts (I did 185#!- totally stoked about that!)
As many handstand push-ups as possible

Here are my handstand push-up reps each round-
10
5
3 1/2
3
5

They're all modified in some sort of fashion. The first round was with my legs on a half wall that our gym has. In these, my head went all the way down. After that round, I did a handstand on a full wall and tried to get as low as possible. They would not be considered full handstand push-ups b/c my forehead didn't touch and I fully realize that. I was just trying to get comfortable with this full handstand position- holding it, not falling, blood rushing to your head, keep breathing, etc.

Now I'm going to go back to reading my book, which is pretty much what I've done all day long :)

Until tomorrow,

Read more...

Hodge Podge

Got a quick workout in tonight- 4 rounds of 500 meters on the rower with 3 minutes of rest in between each round.

Here are my splits-
2:38
2:27
2:19
2:13

The first round was my warm-up. I didn't even stretch or jog in place or anything, just hopped on the rower and away I went. Hence the pretty crappy first round.

Michael and I have been tweaking our diet and our workout program a little bit. We're reducing our carbohydrate intake and in order to make up for the lost calories, we're adding more fat blocks. Michael so far loves it and said he feels fuller longer but I'm still on the fence. My body is seriously craving the carbs. I know it's just temporary but I haven't been able to follow our new block program strictly because of these strong cravings. I need to have a good solid week of following the food plan to a "T" before I can say it works for me or doesn't.

Here's what my new diet looks like (P= Protein, C= Carbohydrate, F=Fat)-
Breakfast 3P 1C 15F
Snack 1P 0C 5F
Lunch 3P 1C 15F
Snack 1P 0C 5F
Dinner 3P 2C 15F
Snack 1P 0C 5F

Total blocks 12P 4C 60F for a total of 1,290 calories

We're also messing with our workouts slightly by switching from a 3 day on 1 day off routine to a 5 day on 2 day off routine. We're going to have Thursdays and Fridays off since these are normally when our energy is really low due to long hours at work. We're still following the main site WOD's, just moving around the rest days.

Until tomorrow,

Read more...

Now the pigs are SOARING

2 days, 2 workouts, 2 blog posts!

Someone's on a roll! :-P

Let's see...which should I blog about first?

Tonight's workout was simple. 2 different tabata workouts on the treadmill. My quads are really sore from last night's workout so I was hoping the running would loosen them up.

8 rounds 20 seconds on x 10 seconds off
12% incline
I ran at 5.8mph and it was a doozy. That last round was killer.

then

8 rounds 20 seconds on x 10 seconds off
9mph sprints
I ran the last round at 9.5mph. It was tough again.

Fast but good trip to the gym.

Our finances were also simple today. I transferred $360 to our Anniversary Vacation Fund today. That means our total is $860. We're still not sure where we want to go or what we want to do. We're thinking the end of this year or early 2011, although our anniversary is this month. I have another $100 budgeted for us to go out to a nice dinner maybe see a movie or something. In October I'm going to finally get myself a passport! I feel like such a grown up!

Until tomorrow,

Read more...

Are pigs currently flying?

Hold onto your shorts- I worked out AND I'm blogging about it! What?!??!?!???

Oh yeah, that's right. I'm back in action baby. And it only took two weeks to get me there.

In all seriousness, I did take two weeks off but it was needed. I still don't feel great- like I may be in a bit of a funk- but I feel better at least.

I am seriously just so fed up with work. I know, I know, you're all sick of hearing about it. Well, I applied for another job last week so we'll see if that actually pans out. Yes, I'm unhappy and yes, I want to do something about it besides just complaining all the time, but I'm not willing to settle into a different job just because of those things. So, you may just have to deal with my bitching for a little while until my issues with work are resolved (aka I find a new job).

I originally started typing this long story here about what happened today but then I decided against it.

Here's the realization I've come to recently---
They want me to become someone I'm not. They want me to become a "yes sir" type of employee- don't ask questions, just do as I'm told. My options are 1)become that person and probably have an easier time at the office 2)continue to be myself, be known as "the debater" and not fit in at all, or 3) leave.

After telling you I applied for a different job last week, I think you know which one I chose :)

After a frustrating evening, I headed to the gym. It was tough but mind you I haven't worked out in weeks.

Every minute on the minute do
5 deadlifts
5 hang power cleans
5 thrusters

I ended up doing 12 full rounds. I used 2-15# dumbbells and it was a great workout back!

It put me in a much better mood for the rest of the evening. I love how a workout can do that!

Thanks for bearing with me while I work through my career ambitions! And thanks for bearing with me while I play "catch up" on everyone's blogs! I feel so out of the loop!

Read more...

Yea, yea, yea

I know, I know, I've really sucked lately at blogging. And reading blogs for that matter.

I'm just in a funk right now.

I've been good with my diet with an exception here and there but nothing major. But I only worked out once. My budget is sort of on auto pilot these days so I only have an update once every other week or so.

In other words, I don't have anything to blog about. I'm just so "blah" lately. I guess working 12 hour days over and over and over again will do that to you. I'm not even reading at night anymore. I don't even have the energy to get into a good book. If that tells you anything!

So yeah, I'm still here... just chilling.

Read more...

Yeehaw

The title of this post means nothing. No, I didn't buy cowboy boots, I didn't go to a rodeo, and I'm not a cowgirl. I just felt like saying Yeehaw.

You know how we took the whole last week off from working out? Apparently we missed a whole lot of drama at our gym. We walked in today and all the TV's were gone. And there are normally a lot of them- probably 2 dozen or so. All gone. There's a security guard manning the front desk instead of a typical employee. Well alrighty then...

Apparently the owners of the gym came in last week and took everything. They put a "closed" sign up and just walked away from the gym. This is not a mom-n-pop establishment. It's a big gym and the other gyms owned by the same people all across the valley all closed! I guess the gym was closed for a few days last week and we didn't even notice! The landlord decided to open the doors and keep the gym  running although the owners walked away. Hmm... so, no TV and also no music because they stole the stereo system. Crazy!

Luckily I wore my IPOD and made my own music.

I warmed up and did 15 kipping pull-ups (which looked awesome by the way- my chin was ABOVE the bar gosh darnit!) and 15 push-ups (chest to the ground) as my "check-in." I also did a bunch of body weight squats, shoulder presses with 45# bar, and deadlifts.

Then I did 3-3-3-3-3 overhead squats. This was my first time actually paying attention to how much weight I put on for overhead squats so I started with 45#. I knew I could do that weight 15 or so times if I had to so I figured it was as good as place as any to begin. Here are my weights-

45-50-55-60-65

I might have been able to keep going but I'll save it for next time. This was my first time back to the gym in a week so I didn't want to push it.

Then I did 25 more kipping pull-ups and 25 more push-ups. Have I told you how much I suck at push-ups?

Ooh, I almost forgot... I had this chick come up to me and say, "You're my hero." She said she can't believe that I can do a pull-up and she wishes she could one. I told her how it was my mission for about a year and it took me a while to get it. It felt really great to hear that comment though I have to admit!

Her comment made me realize that it will be hard if we begin working out at a CrossFit gym- I'll be just a normal chick who works out as opposed to one of the toughest chicks at my globogym. Most girls do not workout in the "guy section" or use free weights, at least not at my gym. And most girls do not use the squat rack or pull-up bars. I definitely get a few stares but all of that will just be "normal" at a CrossFit gym.

Aww...I won't be special anymore. =]

Guess I'll just have to work on being a bad ass chica!

Read more...

Still Alive

Hi everyone! I'm still alive...just took the week off because of my ankle. I have to say that I've been really good with my diet all week. I treated myself last night to a chocolate and banana shake from Sonic but I'm sure that was the only treat I had all week. I was lazy about updating my food journal but it was mostly because I was so busy. I didn't even have 5 minutes during the day after eating a snack or meal to update it. In fact, I didn't even take lunches all week- I worked right through all of them.

Because of my week off, I don't have any fitness-related updates to post. We'll get back to that in a day or two and I can't wait!

A few things-
1. Our spending $ is a bit higher this month because we have some family visiting and also it's our anniversary at the end of the month. We have $100 for dinner for our anniversary, $50 while family is here, and then $80 as our normal spending money.

2. The Anniversary category is for our vacation at the end of this year so it will go in our savings until we figure out what we want to do.

3. Shopping is for 2 new pairs of shoes for Michael and I. The shoes I want to buy are the Saucony Bullet (to the right). Cool right?

Have you made your budget for September? What are you saving for? It's never too late to start budgeting!

Read more...