Happy Halloween!

Every Halloween I vow to lose weight so I can dress up as skanky as possible for my costume.  What ends up happening is that I don't lose the weight, and then try to still dress as skanky as I feel comfortable.  I think this will be my last year dressing up with that mentality.  Luckily, it's probably the least I've weighed in many Halloweens.  The costume choice? Easy.  This year I've been completely obsessed with Ke$ha.  I've seen two of her concerts (and I'd go again in a heart beat), have both her CD's (Didn't want the remix one) and I even have (gasp) a Ke$ha shirt (that I drunkenly overpaid a dollar for). 

I think I nailed the costume pretty well:



Ke$ha



Karen



Weirdest thing ever?  After Dennis took that picture, the first thing I said was....whoa look at my arm muscle! 

Now that Halloween is over, I can put away the glitter and the skeleton body suit and refocus on my Crossfitting.  I am happy to say that I am 100% healthy and ready to rock. 

In two months we will be in 2012....that is just nuts!  I am still going to try to lose 1lb a week until 2012.  It's been a rocky start with Halloween weekend and loss of power, but if I focus and work really hard I think I can do it. 

Even though I my diet hasn't been ideal, my two girlfriends and I have still be emailing each other what we've been eating to keep each other honest and on track.

For the rest the year I'm also going to try to blog more, and for sure keep track of my weights more.  Today I did two movements at 100+ lbs.  Go Me!

I hope everybody had a wonderful and safe Halloween!!!


Skill:
5 Rounds
10 Second Plank
30 DU

7 x 1 Split Jerks (65lbs)

WOD:
10 Minute AMRAP
2 Deadlifts (115lbs)
8 Wall Ball (14lbs)

10+2

3 Minutes Find 1 Rep Max Split Jerk  = 100lbs

Free Sex!!

Got your attention, right!?

Back in my business class I learned that there are two words the will grab almost 100% of people's attention.  Free. and Sex.  (not necessarily used together). 

Growing up, I learned the value of a dollar and I tried to be wise with my money by trying to get the best value for my dollar and trying to get things for free (if possible).  This attitude and mind set got me addicted to using coupons.  I will never forget finding a .50 off coupon on soup, and then having the grocery store doubling it to $1.00 off and paying practically pennies for a can of soup.  WOW, thats cool!  I would then get coupons, match them with sales and get the most for my money. 

Nothing wrong with that, right?  WRONG!!!!

Before Crossfit and going paleo, I would thrive on saving huge %'s off my grocery bill by combining the sales and the coupons.  Now I'm lucky if I even use a couple coupons if any.  Why might you ask?  Typically the foods that the coupons are for are complete junk.  Candy, Sweet Cereals, Breads, things that I no longer eat.  Sporatically I will find coupons for Almond Milk, or frozen veggies which I like to have on hand in case I'm out of fresh veggies and in a pinch which I can use, but nothing like before. 

It is a little sad, I would get really excited at the check out to see how much money I saved with the bonus card and the coupons and now that thrill is pretty much gone.  I still coupon, (yes that is a verb) but I just do it differently.  I try to find coupons that are off a total purchase, rather than an item.  I look for coupons that are for healthy items and I pride myself on going to Produce Junction and paying way less for fresh produce without a coupon than in a typical grocery store. 

How else can I get my thrills?  Sweeping!! (Yes that is a verb)

I love entering contests!  I have a prettttttttttty good track record of winning things and lets face it, they are fun!  For whatever reason, lots of crossfit companies, JournalMENU, Life as RX, WOD Love, have endless contests and Facebook makes it so easy!  

Its a easy, fun, and cheap way to fill my crossfit gear fix!  

hahahaha no joke, I just found out I won another facebook contest!!! Don't Hate!

SKILL:
400 Meter Run Forward
400 Meter Run Backwards

2 minutes JR Forward
2 minutes JR Backwards

WOD: Camille

AMRAP 8 MINUTES

3 SNATCH COMPLEXES

3 WALL CLIMBS

1 COMPLEX = POWER SNATCH/HANG SNATCH/HANG SQUAT SNATCH

*IF BAR IS DROPPED DURING THE SNATCH COMPLEX, REP DOES NOT COUNT!

 

2+2

Counting Calories!

I am happy to say that I am 99% back to my old self.  That was the worst cold/flu/sickness that I have had in a LONG time, but I survived a 3 WOD week last week and I am ready to commit 3 to 4 WODS in a week from now on.  Hooray!!  So maybe that will increase my bloggings as well?

Over the weekend my sister-in-law Colleen, my friend Heather, and I have decided that we want to help each other lose weight.  We all have very different situations, but we all share the same goal of being thinner (Shocker Right?).  So we all decided that we want to lose 1 pound a week until January 1st 2012 and we would do this by writing down our meals (starting Monday the 24th) and email each other what we ate while counting our calories. 

I've mentioned a few times before in older blogs that I've had major success with this in College.  In fact, I think I actually lost the "freshman 15" rather than gaining them, all because I counted my calories and ran.....a lot.  

So yesterday I fired up my Calorie Counting App (yes there's an app for that) and I found that I didn't need to make too many adjustments to my eatings.  As long as I eat lots of veggies and lean meats, I will have plenty of calories for each of my 5 feedings per day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner). 

So day #1:  Success!!

I consumed 1360 Calories and I burned 277 Calories (estimate of Calories burned at Crossfit) and I stayed under my daily budget of 1283 by 200.  Simple math, right? 

Today is going to be a little more challenging because I am not going to work out.  That leaves me with 277 less calories that I was allotted yesterday, but with some major planning, I should be able to stay within my budget. 


Yesterday's WOD:

Skill:
10 Rounds
50 Meter Runs
5 Burpee's After Each Run

3 x 5 Back Squat 85lbs
3 x 5 Push Press 65lbs

WOD:
500 Meter Row
2 Rounds:
35 DU
30 Jumping Lunges
25 DU
20 Kettlebell Snatch
15 DU
10 Turkish Get Up

23 Minutes

Cash Out: 500 Meter Row - 1:53.5

You Have to Celebrate Your Wins

When I started this blog I thought there was no possible way I could think of something related to crossfit to write about everyday.  Now granted, I haven't been posting every anymore, but it's been pretty close, and I am happy to know that I can think of a new topic to babble about! 

Today was no exception, and I can't make this stuff up. 

Lately I've been having a really hard time with things.  It's just been a bad week as far as getting back to my Crossfit routine, eating the right things, plus I haven't been sleeping well and when I do sleep, I've been having really bad dreams.  I feel like a walking zombie.  Which makes its harder to go to Crossfit and put effort into my meals and btw keeping up with a house, pets, and anything else that is thrown my way.  Sigh.  Oh, all while trying to keep my job and juggle my social life.  In fact, I've felt like a failure for a few weeks now and I just can't get out of this really weird funk. 

So today I pack my gym back with the hopes to go to the 5pm class.  Well guess what?  Because I had guests over last night, I threw all my shoes into my closest to make it appear that my house was clean and since my shoes were hidden in the closet, I ended up forgetting to pack them.  Normally this isn't a huge deal, but today it makes me feel like I failed once again. 

OK fine not the end of the world, I'll just have to go home before class and get them, and make the 6pm or even 7pm class.  That cuts into my running errands time, but those can wait. 

Then at 4:15pm I get a call at work and it is a friend that I used to work with at my current job.  She was just calling to tell me how much of an inspiration and how proud of me she was!!  I almost started crying right then and there.  She went on to say how she was just telling her friends how I was this success story to her and she thought it would be worth the phone call to tell me that she thought that. 

Here I was, beating myself up about how much I sucked and how horrible I was doing, and out of the blue this phone call comes.  I told her that she had no idea how much that meant to me and couldn't have come at a better time since I was feeling so down and out. 


As I said before, I had to run home and get my sneakers and I got to the box at 5:30.  I sat there and watched the 5pm class do the WOD and I started to feel hopeless again.  The WOD two movements that I knew I couldn't do:  Ring Dips and Rope Climbs.

I had attempted rope climbs wayyyyyyyyyyy back when 610 was at the other location and had to do the scaled version, I was already defeated....And then something magical happend.....

I fucking climbed the rope!!!!!!!!!!!!  (6 times in the WOD)!!!


I was so freaking excited that I called my best friend and left her a voicemail to tell her how I climbed the rope and how happy and proud I was.  I have to rememeber to celebrate my wins.  Especially since I've felt so crappy about things lately. 


WOD:
30 Minutes AMRAP
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5-6 ect Snatches
19 DU
8 Ring Dips
1 Rope Climbs

6+1 Rounds. 

What's Next?

And they lived happily ever after....

Now that my Vegas goal is gone, and my cold/sinus whatever this sickness is, is about 90% gone, I am tryyyyyyyying to get back into eating healthy and Crossfitting 3-4 days a week.  WHY IS THIS SO HARD AGAIN?  I have all the tools to be successful and I know what it takes to be successful, so why am I getting stuck?

1. Routine.  I am completely out of my healthy routine.  I need to go to bed early so I can wake up early to get the WOD in right away.  That free's up my evenings after work to prep food and do errands. 

2. No Goal.  My first 8 weeks I was trying to win the Biggest Loser.  My 2nd 8 Weeks I was trying to win The Best Shape of my Life.  From the end of that I was trying to be hot for Vegas.  Now I have no goals set for myself, so it's hard for me to find the motivation. 

3. Mentally Weak.  Completely ignoring the fact that I had to take some time off of Crossfit to recover from being sick, I feel like I have lost all that I had accomplished.  The WOD's have been kicking my ass the last two weeks and I feel like I should be performing better than this. 

So what's the plan Karen?

Well first off, I'm going to stop feeling sorry for myself.  Ok- done.  Next I am going to set a fitness goal of losing 1 pound per week until January 2012.  It's completely reachable, very measurable, and it would be very cool to be 140-143lbs to ring in the new year (new party dress perhaps?).  I'm going to use my tools and knowledge that in order to lose weight I have to get enough sleep, drink lots of water, eat the right foods, and exercise 3-4 days a week, oh and of course having a positive attitude!

Good luck to me!

Goats and Cows

Goat = Something you suck at.  Cow = Something you eat. 

Even though I suck at 90% of the crossfit movements, when I am asked to work on my goats I never know what to pick and today we had to pick three. 

So I made up my mind.  I want to be able to do an unassisted pull up.  So Goat #1 was pull ups using the red band. 

Goat #2 came to me like a ton of bricks.  Overhead Squats.  It's one of my most hated strength movement and I can't get above 45lbs.  Hate.Hate.Hate. 

After seeing other people's Goats, I saw Turkish get ups and decided to make that my third.  My left arm is really weak during these movements and I really just need to get more reps under my belt to get the form. 

I shall name you: Pull Up, OHS, and Turkish Get Up

While at the Fight Gone Bad 6 in Philly, a few of us joked around about going in together and buying a cow, better known as a cow share, and now we've started the ball on actually doing it.  I love how we work really hard during our WOD's but really have a sense of friendship and community outside of the gym. 

moo!

Skill:
10 Minutes AMRAP 3 Goats
5 reps then switch

WOD:
7 Rounds
6 Hanging Cleans (55lbs)
5 HSPU
8 Get out of the Pools

21:08

Cash Out:
4 - 100 Meter Sprints

It's Great to be Back!

After a long crossfit hiatus, I reluctantly showed up for the 6am WOD this morning.  It had been 8 days since my last WOD and it honestly felt like months. 

I say I reluctantly showed up for the 6am WOD not because I was dreading the workout, its because I'm still not 100% feeling better.  I still have 5 more days of the antibiotics and I'm still a bit congested.

During my 8 days with no physical exercise, I had a couple scary moments.  I was thinking to myself how easy it would be to just quit crossfit all together.  Isn't that insane?  I went from this super hardcore WOD-aholic to barely moving off the couch, easily eating whatever I wanted, and enjoying it.  Then two things happened.  I checked my credit card statement and saw that my monthly Crossfit charge when through and more importantly, I wasn't feeling so fantastic in the current pair of jeans I was wearing.  Enough was enough. 

So I spent the majority of Sunday cooking, cutting, and measuring my meals for the week and making sure they were all paleo approved.  Done. 

I went to bed at 9pm last night in hopes of getting 8 hours of sleep which was a good move on my part.  Up at 5am and WODing by 6am.  Dennis reluctantly joined me this morning, and when I say he reluctantly joined me I mean he kept telling me how much he was pissed at me for "dragging him there in the morning" etc, etc.  (And by 10am he was telling me how awesome he felt and how much energy he has for the day....ahem.  YOUR WELCOME!)

It felt really good to be back and moving.  I had to scale things down and take it easy, but showing up was part of the battle and as my health increases hopefully so will my performance.

Skill:
20 Double Unders
10 Push Ups
3 Rounds

3 x 10 Back Squats (45lbs)
3 x 7 Push Press (45lbs)

WOD:
12 Minute AMRAP
12 T2B
5 Side Box Jumps (20inch)
200 M Run w/sand bag

3+15

200 Flutterkicks (Cash Out) 2:07

Sick of Being Sick

Thank you body for reminding me that I am NOT in college anymore.  Since back from Vegas, I have been.....miserable. 

At first, it was just jet lag and in combination of crappy eating, lots of drinking, and little to no sleep.  Fine.  I deserve that. 

THEN

I come down with a horrendous cold with a side of ear infection.  So where does this leave me?

Well, I attempted going to work last Thursday and had to leave halfway through.  Stayed home Friday, Monday, attempted Tuesday, came home.  Stayed home Wednesday, and so far made it through a foggy half day today. 

As far as Crossfit goes:  Went last Thursday morning and I obviously couldn't make it through the work day.  Went on Saturday and haven't been back since.  THIS. SUCKS. 

So in addition of feeling horrible, I've decided to go on an eating free for all.  Stupid.Stupid.Stupid. 


I'm really upset about the timing of this because I was going to "reset" on October first.  I was going to go hard core paleo and crossfit and hopefully lose the Vegas weight I gained and get back on tract.  Not to mention I committed to rowing 100,000 meters by the 15th, which now looks impossible. 

BUT I HAVE TO REMEMBER.

I am sick.  I need to let my body rest and heal and recover.  These things happen.  With that said, I probably wont see Crossfit again until the earliest this Sunday if I'm feeling up for it.  Sigh. 


Here are some of the pictures we got done in Vegas.  I have to say I am VERY happy how they turned out and I am verry happy about how Dennis and I look in them, couldn't have looked this way with out crossfit in our lives!