February Check In

My February goal of keeping a food journal has been going very well so far! I think I have missed only one day. The weekends are the hardest,  which in sure it is for most keeping a food journal.  I've thrown some pictures of my journal that one of my staff members volunteered to make for me...it's awesome! 

In other news I started at FitElite, the CrossFit box here! I'm just going though the essentials right now,  but I'm very excited for something new and challenging. ..and hopefully I'll meet some new people along the way! More on this later!

CrossFit First Timer

If you were to look back at my workouts over the past few months you would find there is no rhyme or reason to them.  I don't use periodization, I don't build up my weights as quickly as I could, but I do keep things fresh! So many people ask me what is the best way to lose weight or get healthy?  My response is generally "the one that you will do"!  In the past I may have been able to follow a periodization lifting plan, but at this point in my life I would get bored of it.  I like being able to come into the gym and do a heavy strength workout one day, a circuit training lift the next and like yesterday a CrossFit workout.  

My first CrossFit workout kicked my butt!  I did not actually go to a CrossFit gym, or in Eau Claire it is called Fit Elite, but I used their workout and did it on my own... which to me tells me I probably would have worked harder had I been at a CrossFit gym.  I already felt totally whipped, I can't imagine going harder, but that is the beauty of our bodies, they can do things we could never imagine!  Here's what I did:

For time:

500m row

70 double unders

60 push ups ("girl" style)

50 box jumps 

40 kettle bell swings

30 knees-to-elbows

20 goblet squats

10 Turkish get-ups

My time: 20:03

Could of foot notes:  I used a 20 inch box for my box jumps, I don't know what height they use, but I figured this would be a sufficient height.  I could not do the knees-to-elbows!  I was not able to do these in college either, so of course now I want to work on these and see if I can get better.  Instead of these I did leg lifts in a hanging chair.  Final note... if you are not good at double unders you may leave the gym looking like you were just whipped.  

So far this week has been right on with my fitness plan, that doesn't happen very often.  I got some serious blisters while playing basketball on Wednesday, due to my rookie mistake of not breaking them in prior to playing in them.  I don't remember the last time I had blisters and I don't get them often, so of course I'm being a baby about them.  

If you're looking for another lift to do, try this one that I did on Tuesday... I was sore the next day....

DB step-press 20x

Lever punch 10x each side

Versa climber or climbing wall 2:00

EZ curls 20x

Skull crushers 20x

Rower 2:00

SB DB fly and press 10/10x

BOSU KB row 10/10x

Stairmaster 2:00 

(each trio is done three times before moving on the to next)

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Last night I came across this recipe for coconut almond flour pancakes, with everything on hand I had to make them this morning!  I did not make the sauce she suggested, but I used melted cream cheese frosting to top them off...YUM!

Running Cross Road

I have come to a cross road in my half marathon training (the half is next weekend).  I called yesterday to ask a question about registration and ask if the race is going to be a "Go" since it is the first year.  The race director replied with "Yes it is a Go, but it will be a small race".   How small you ask?  TEN small! I could not believe it when he told me that!  I expected it wouldn't be huge in it's first year, but I never thought it would be that small.   So here I am in a sticky situation... I really just can't bring myself to pay $45 to run a race with 10 people, which means I may actually run the majority of the race by myself :(  But I've been training for about 2 months for the race.  Right now I'm thinking that I will just not do the race at all and run 13.1 by myself (or with my sister biking with me) that Saturday.  I'm just really disappointed because I don't want to pay that much money for a mediocre race event, especially since I'm not exactly loaded right now.  What would you do? 


FRUIT!
The fruit's finished!  The banana chips were a little more crisp than I remember them ever being as a kid, so I think I could have either cut them thicker or dried them for a shorter time.  Peaches on the other hand were perfect!  I wish I would've done mangoes too, I love dried mangoes!  The bananas and peaches were dried for 10.5 hours.  On the other hand, I should've expected that the mandarin oranges were going to take longer due to the higher juice content in them and they were thicker than the other fruits.  When I check the other fruits these babies weren't done yet at all, they took another 6 hours.  This was the first time I'd ever tried drying mandarin oranges and I'd say they were a success (minus the enormous amount of time they take)!  They were very chewy and sweet, I'd recommend drying them if you get the chance.

WORKOUT
Today is my day off and I'll be heading to a yoga class pretty soon, but here was my workout yesterday...

3 mile run (27:00)

Then I moved into Fit In Heels Jump & Pump workout (modified)
2:00 jump rope
1:00 squat (65lb)
2:00 JR
1:00 crunches
2:00 JR
1:00 plank
2:00 JR
1:00 mountain climbers
2:00 JR
1:00 lunges (I added delt raises)

After doing one round of the Jump & Pump workout I decided to switch things up a little... PS the jump roping is killer!
2:00 tread wall
1:00 squat (65lb)
2:00 tread wall
1:00 sit up w/fly (5lb)
2:00 tread wall
1:00 SB lock out
2:00 versa climber
2:00 (:30 each) vasa crunches, fly, pull ups, swimmers

Flying from one thing to the next made for one very sweaty girl!  I like all the variety in the workout, but if I were to do it again I would add a few more large muscle group exercises in there instead of so many abs, just for a more total body workout.  I loved this though, I'll probably be stealing this format again!



I WANT TO BE LIKE HER...
Did anyone watch the CrossFit Games the other night?  My goodness those women are amazing!  I really want to be like them!  Look at how strong these women are...

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I CANNOT imagine what type of training regime these ladies (and the guys) go through.  Anyone out there have any desire to train for competitions like this?  I think it would be so cool to train and become a CrossFit Games athlete!