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http://www.norcalcrossfit.com/blog/84/norcal-crossfit-jan-15th-2014

Result: 2 rounds + 63 reps

  • 60 Single Jump Rope (subbed for 30 doubles)
  • 15 Ground to Overhead (G2O), Barbell 75 lb

Its been a while since I’ve been into the gym. The only recent workout I did was the benchmark for the Fuel Challenge. I did manage to find my original score from back in 2011… CrossFit Games Open WOD #1. As expected, I didn’t do anywhere close to my past performance. But for a first WOD back , I think I did alright. At least I made it to the gym.

 

Week #1… Done!

First thought… Anyone know how to teach cats to wash dishes? Just kidding, kind of. I’ve been doing a LOT of dish washing because I’ve been doing a lot of cooking in my tiny kitchen, which is a good thing, and have started stock piling food. Overall, I think I’m did pretty good. One of my biggest hurdles with meals is being lazy, there are lots of time when I just want to eat. Not have to cook and clean. Just eat. Queue the slow cooker! Plus every time I cook, I’ve been making lots of food and freezing part of it (queue vacuum sealer) for quick meals later on. Here are a few of the meals I had this past week:

Continue Reading

Wow, over a year since my last post :-(

Needless to say, this past year… not so good in terms of getting my life back on a healthy track. I’ve let a lot of excuses keep me from eating better and going to the gym. It has been a very long time since I’ve done any serious cooking at home and I’ve had way way way too much pizza as evident by my expanding waistline. Not to mention the lack of energy and horrible performance the few time I did make it to CrossFit. I’m basically back to where I started… overweight and out of shape.

So with the start of the new year, I’ve once again decided to join the Fuel Challenge (http://norcalcrossfit-fuel.blogspot.com/2013/12/norcal-crossfit-fuel-challenge-january.html) at the gym but will attempt the Whole 30 (http://whole30.com/) this time. The catch is that due to logistical issues, it may not be an official challenge in the competition sense (not that I was looking for that), so we will see. For me, it more about the accountability and support of having other folks doing the same.

I’m even trying to get my mom to join in unofficially. We keep talking about trying to eat healthier and how we keep finding reasons why we haven’t done so yet. Hopefully this year we’ll be able to help keep other going in the right the direction.

I’ve just been lacking any sort of motivation and organization around getting my life going back in the direction I want. I’m been caught in that cycle of eat crap, feel like crap, no energy and don’t want deal with cook so eat more crap, feel like crap and don’t want to cook, eat more crap, feel like crap, etc… Going to the gym, cleaning my apartment, being active, and just being social in general have also all been lacking. Time to change all that.

The benchmark for the start of the Fuel Challenge…

Benchmark: 3 rounds

  • 400m run
  • 10 Burpees
  • 20 Pull-ups
  • 30 KB Swings (1.5 pood)

Results: 1 round + 17 reps (20min cap)

Having been eating like crap and not making to the gym… not surprised by this, but still kinda disappointed in myself. I probably should have scaled the pull-ups, as those took a lot out of me and most of the time.

Hello blog… it’s been some time.

With the holidays finally over with, its time to get back to a normal routine. I’m an not making a New Years resolution, but rather just getting back to what I know I should be doing. No more pumpkin spice lattes, peppermint mochas, or late night pizzas. Its back to the gym and back to eating clean.

And to help kickstart the whole process, I’ve opted to join into the Fuel Challenge at NorCal CrossFit… http://norcalcrossfit-fuel.blogspot.com/2012/12/norcal-crossfit-fuel-challenge-as-we.html

This is Paleo/Primal challenge with various levels of strictness.

  1. Eliminate all refined and added sugar
  2. Eliminate Grains/Gluten and Soy (includes corn & beer)
  3. Eliminate Legumes, Beans and Lentils
  4. Eat full fat dairy only
  5. Cook with animal fats/coconut oil
  6. Eliminate starches (white potatoes, rice,)
  7. Eliminate all dairy (heavy cream, butter)
  8. Eliminate all alcohol
  9. Limit fruit to 2 pieces a day
  10. Eliminate nuts and added salt

I’m committing to level 7, that way I can enjoy a glass of wine with dinner ;-)  I should be posting more frequently again, as I get into the challenge, start cooking again, and get back to the gym.

I haven’t been logging most of the WODs I’ve been doing (but I have been going to the gym at least a few times a week), but figured I should log this one since its kind of a strength/skill checkpoint…

WOD:

Shoulder Press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push Press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

RESULTS:

SP #125
PP #135
PJ #155

Followed up by Tabatha burpees!  I definitely need to work on my front rack position, as this workout pretty much killed my wrists since they took up a lot of the force that my shoulders should have due to the lack of flexibility.

 

So week #2 is starting of with a not-so-on type of weekend, which is better than the off-the-wall type of weekends I had prior to June. I did manage to cook a fair amount of quality food, but also managed to have a few not-so-quality foods and drinks. Pretty much every dinner this weekend was on the grill:

What went along with these fabulous meals wasn’t so paleo… a few apricot wheat beers, couple glasses of red wine, and a some sangria as well. That being said, I did have some will-power and managed to resist the chips, dip, and other crap that my friends brought over for my impromptu BBQs.

Then there was Sat evening at the bar which ended in Taco Bell :-( That was my one off-the-wall meal of the weekend. Its usually in these social and late night scenarios which I endup not making the best decisions when it comes my eat.

Here’s the damage… Continue Reading

Week number 1 is done! And overall I think I did pretty good. While didn’t do so good with packing food to bring to the office, I did try to make some smart choices… like getting a carne asada salad rather than a pastrami sandwich. I did do much better with breakfast and dinner having finally cleaned up my kitchen and did some cooking at home. Here are a few snapshots:

Another area I didn’t do so well with is the drinking, as I did continue to have some wine with dinner throughout the week. But in spite of this, I did still manage to make process according to the scale (which I know is not always a good measure, but it is nice to see progress there).

With regards to starting on a Friday, I think it works out well. As my weekends tends to be a little off when I’m being social, so rather than finish up the week that that way I get to start off the week that way. Speaking of the next week… its time to bump things up. I’m going to make an attempt to limit the amount of nuts and fruits, as well as not eat out so much.

Oh, here is the complete menu for the rest of week #1…  Read more…

So once again I fell completely off the wagon, MIA from the gym, and was living off pizza. When will I learn :-(

With the start of the new month (June), I decided to try and get back on the Paleo/Primal track. Since I don’t seem to be doing so good with the “trying to just eat better”, I’ve decided to join in with a few other folks on http://robbwolf.com who decided to do a 30 day challenge for June (read here).

I was a little weary of starting on a Friday, as I usually like to start fresh with the beginning of the week on a Monday. However, considering that the weekends are usually my downfall, I figured decided it was a good thing after all. And for the most part I made it through pretty well, aside from a few glasses of wine and some cheese. This included resisting the pizza they provided for a meeting and later birthday cake at the office on Friday.

Here’s a sample of some of the meals which I make:


And here is the full meal log… Continue Reading