CrossFit Throwdown

So we had this competition at the gym a few weeks back. A couple of people took pictures, and put them on the internet, free for the taking. Here are the ones of me.


This first workout was a 60m run and chest-to-overhead lift, every minute, on the minute, for 8 minutes. Each successful lift was 1 point, and the goal was max points in 8 minutes. The head poking in from the right was my score keeper, and also a huge source of encouragement. He was loud, and in my face, and it was exactly what I needed.




The prescribed weight for this workout is 100lbs, but I scaled it down to 35lbs. I know the bar looks big, but I promise you guys that ALL OF YOU could lift that weight above your head, at least once. If you have arms and legs, and if those arms and legs work, and if 35lbs is less than 1/3rd of your body weight, you could lift it. I did so on my very first day at the gym.


Me jumping the bar up.


I have no idea if the bar is going up or coming down in this picture, but at least I got my face out of the way. That's important.


After I jumped the bar up, I caught it in a 2-inch squat. It's called a Push Jerk. And it helps to get the bar all the way overhead, especially when you're tired. Which I was.






Second workout of the day: 3 attempts to get my 5-rep max of deadlift. My former 5-rep max was 95lbs. I was looking to beat that by at least 10lbs.

I love this picture of me, and I'm not really sure why. I think it's because of my form. Form is SO IMPORTANT when weightlifting. You want to take your time and make sure that each little thing is just right. This prevents injury, and promotes proper strength-building.


Check out the grip. It's called the neutral grip. When that weight gets really heavy, this helps to keep the bar from slipping out of your hands.


I am literally yelling in this picture. This is the heaviest deadlift I've ever done. 115lbs. That's more than my body weight. So I set a major personal record, and I'm really proud of myself.


Last workout of the day: 4 stations, 1 minute at each station, and 1 minute of rest in between each round. 3 rounds. A total of 12 minutes of work. Which isn't long, but this workout is meant to max you out, and then some. It's called Fight Gone Bad, and for good reason.


That thing I'm holding is a kettlebell, and the lift I was doing is a high pull. Basically, you violently jerk the weight up from the floor to your chin. The power should come from the hips. I was very tired at this point, and high pulls just killed me. I hated them.


This is called wall balls. It's a weighted medicine ball, and you have to squat with it, and toss it up 9 feet to a target that's on the wall. Again, the power is generated from the hips as you jump up from the squat. Tossing 10lbs that high in the air sucks. Having it hit you in the face on the way down also sucks.


Row machine. We had to row for calories. Again, for this workout, each rep was 1 point (or in this case, each calorie was 1 point). We were going for max points. The only picture I don't have is one of me doing box jumps, which was also part of this workout.

Here are my numbers:
1st Workout: I got 77 points, which means I lifted 35lbs over my head 77 times in 8 minutes. Knowing that rocks my world.
2nd Workout: 115lbs, lifted from the floor, 5 times.
3rd Workout: 181 points, which means I did 181 reps of various things in 12 minutes.


This is me, an hour or so after it was all said and done. I felt amazing. A few days later my muscles were killing me, but it was so worth it.

Can I ask one thing of you guys? Can I ask you not to say "I could never do that"? You never know what you are capable of doing until you try. I had no idea I was capable of doing all that in one day. I've also built up to it. I couldn't have done all that on my first day there. But when I did the competition, I had been there less than two months. I'm not doing the impossible.

We have grandmas and grandpas working out there. We've got kids who CrossFit. Pregnant moms. People of all ages, from all walks of life. And every workout is scaled to where ever they are at. Plus, there is so much encouragement from our coaches, and from all the people working out. It makes everyone want to do more than they think they can. And then we surprise ourselves, because we really did it!

And you can too. Okay, enough lecturing from me. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures lately! It's been too long...

Bunny Pics!

Here are some pictures of Mari's new bunny. She mostly stays in the cage these days (the bunny, not Mari) because it's exhausting bunny-proofing the house so we can let her out. We have to turn the couch into a veritable fortress, because she is OBSESSED with being on it or under it. And she loves to "do her business" when she gets on the couch. I have no idea why, but it's gross.

I finally stripped the covers off the cushions this week so I could wash them. But other than the couch problems, she's cute, and we love to watch her run around the room. Art was smitten from the first day, as you can see....








Once we let her out of her cage, it was almost impossible to get a picture of her. She's fast!



And this has nothing to do with the rabbit. It's a picture of me and Art from way back in August, I think. A friend just sent it to me recently, so...it's here! In this post! About a bunny!

Pictures? No Way!

Art and I attended his work party at the end of February. The theme was "Night at the Oscars". It was supposed to be a costume party, and there were nominations and prizes and everything! I'm terrible at the whole costume thing, so I just dressed up instead. It was a fun night!

No Cell Phone, Paleo Diet...I'm Practically a Cave Woman!

The Paleo challenge ended a week ago. So Art and I had burgers and fries and milkshakes for dinner on Thursday. And twice on Saturday. And Mexican food for lunch the next day. And the crowning moment: Girl Scout cookies and ice cream for dinner on Sunday. Yeah. That was quite an interesting four days.

Did you know it only took four days to put me back to where I was before? I ate almost perfect for 45 days, and in four days, my face was full of blemishes, and I was noticing a few PMS symptoms creeping up. So yeah. As far as eating goes, Paleo is the way, the truth, and life.

Art and I got back into it on Monday (me more than him), and these stupid pimples still haven't gone away. And sure enough, I got cramps when I got my period. It was only FOUR DAYS. And I'm still paying for it.

So I'm determined to go at least 30 days this time. Or until my next period. I went 21 days before cheating last time. I think I can do 30. And I'm more determined than ever. Cheating is so not worth it.

In other news, my sister-in-law got a rabbit. She's sitting in a large cage on the living room floor as I type, and she's SO CUTE!!! (The rabbit is in a cage, not my sister-in-law.) She's small, and black, and so soft. And she doesn't like carrots, apparently. I don't know where that stereotype came from, because she won't touch them.

Also? She's not too bright. She cannot, for the life of her, figure out how to get out of her cage (when the door is open). But she knows how to get back in. We take her out, encourage her to explore, and she sniffs round and round her cage, and then hops back in. I don't get it. Strangest bunny I've ever known. And I've only ever known her. So.............yeah.

Her name is Lucille. It's perfect. I don't know why, but it is. Marilu was wrestling with names for over an hour, and then she blurted out "Lucille" and we just knew. Lucy. Lulu. If you didn't already notice, we're pretty attached to her. Art and her are becoming very good friends.

Speaking of changing the subject, I think I'm getting a cell phone next month. It's kind of a big deal. I've never had one before. I don't really feel like I need one. I have a phone here at home. If someone needs to get ahold of me, they can call that phone. It has voicemail and everything! I really just like the idea of not having to be attached to a little device all the time. So far, the world hasn't stopped turning because someone couldn't call me while I was on the bus.

At the same time, it doesn't make sense to keep the land line. We mainly have it so I can call my mom. But I end up talking to telemarketers and wrong numbers way more often. And I'm so beyond annoyed with it. So I know it's a good thing. But don't you dare text me! I am not a texter. I plan on using the phone as little as possible. In fact, I'm hoping to get a phone that doesn't text. I'm pretty sure those don't exist anymore, but all I need a phone to do is make calls, receive calls, and store phone numbers.

I'm a simple gal. You know Carolyn Dawn Johnson's "Simple Life"? That's practically my life's theme song. In fact, I think I'm going to go listen to it right now!

Link Love!

I don't have time to do a "real" post today, so I decided to share a few links with you. Warning: most of the links have to do with healthy eating. As if you didn't already notice, I can't shut up about this whole Paleo thing. But I have struggled with how to talk about why we eat the way we do. And now I don't have to struggle, because these people say it perfectly!


The Grain Manifesto - Whole 9 blog
My Favorite quote (which actually came from the comments section): "Our dietary recommendations are not intended to replace medical advice, and some may not apply to people with life-threatening illnesses. However, I have fun into very, very few situations where improving your overall health by managing your insulin load and decreasing systemic inflammation does not have a positive, if indirect, effect on other body systems, including those threatened by a disease process."

The Dairy Manifesto - Whole 9 blog
My own thoughts: This one makes me sadder than the no-grains post, because I thought that we Paleo freaks just cut out dairy because most of it is processed. But now I'm finding out that ALL dairy can cause the same problems that grains do. So I guess I'll be dairy-free from now on. It's going to be harder than being grain-free, but I know I'll be better for it in the long run.

The Peanut Manifesto - Whole 9 blog
My own thoughts: This is the last manifesto from their site. I promise. This one is specific to peanuts and peanut butter, but since peanuts are not actually a nut, but a bean, the science can be applied to all beans. Yup, being Paleo means being bean-free.

So now that I'm done telling you what we don't eat, I'm going to show you where you can get delicious recipes for the things we do eat.

Mark's Daily Apple
Mark is the author of The Primal Blueprint. It's the same idea as the Paleo diet. He often posts recipes, and we have tried (and loved) several of them. Here are two to get you started.
- Stuffed Eggplant
- Shepherd's Pie

CavegirlCourt
She is a member of our gym and a Paleo diet lifesaver. She decided to put together a blog just for Paleo recipes, and anyone can contribute.
Mexican Chicken and "Rice" - Art and I tried this one a few days ago. It was amazing!!


On a more serious and non-diet related subject...
AbortionFacts.com - Dr. Willke asks Eric Harrah
My cousin posted this link on Facebook, and I decided to pass it on. This article is an interview with a former abortion doctor. He gets very candid about why abortion clinics do what they do, about some of the unsafe and illegal practices that are far to prevalent in most clinics, and also gives a tip or two on how pro-lifers can make a positive difference.


And those are all the links I have for you today. Again, I'm hoping to upload my pictures from my camera to the computer tomorrow. We'll see when they actually make it on the internet...

Working Out is Like Going To Church. No, Seriously.

Well hello! Look who finally decided to post! (That would be me, in case you weren't sure).

Have I mentioned how busy I am? And I don't even have that much going on. I used to think "busy" meant "trying to cram too many things into my life all at once". And I used to judge people who said they had busy lives. I remember thinking, "why do you feel the need to be involved in everything everywhere so that you are always running around and never relaxing? Cut something out of your life and be okay with it."

Now, I'm the busy one, and I don't even have that much going on. There's really nothing I can cut out. I work, I workout, I make dinner, I do the dishes, and I shower. This leaves me just enough time to check my email, go on Facebook and read updates (I rarely post my own). And then, if I have a few more minutes, I catch up on my blog reading. After that, bedtime.

So I do have time to go on the internet (almost) every day, just not enough time to write a blog post. Not that I have much to post about, considering that I'm STILL going on about I don't have time for blogging.

Let's move on, shall we? So yesterday was the last day of the 45 Day Paleo Challenge. I did alright, I guess. I cheated a few times, and I know I shouldn't be hard on myself, because when I cheated, I cheated pretty small. But come on. My friend went an ENTIRE YEAR without eating junk food. I think I can go 45 days without cheating.

And I was right. When you cheat once, it becomes so much easier to cheat again. And again. Until you've completely reverted to your old eating habits. And I don't want to go back to the way I was eating before.

So I'm going to challenge myself again. Another 45 days. Or maybe 60 days. Or maybe an entire year. And maybe I'll allow myself to cheat, but only one meal, once a week. The longer I go without cheating, the less I want to cheat, because I lose the cravings for those things I used to eat.

I can't wait to raise our kids on a Paleo diet. They won't ever have trouble eating healthy food because they won't be exposed to processed foods and refined sugars. They WILL eat their vegetables, because I know how to make vegetables taste yummy. And I'm glad I know how to do that, because otherwise? I wouldn't eat my vegetables either. Like I said, eating healthy doesn't have to be bland or gross.

Moving on. I'm really enjoying going to the gym. I didn't think going to the gym and working out could be this enjoyable. I've become used to people saying how hard it is to go to the gym. They talk about how boring it is, or maybe that it's intimidating. Or they don't have a friend to go with them.

I would encourage those people to join a CrossFit gym, if there is one in their area. We work out as a class. Everyone doing the same workout, at the same time. Every workout can be scaled to each person's ability. Every person is working as hard as they possibly can. And there is always a coach there to correct our form, but more importantly, they encourage us to keep going. Every person at the gym is so encouraging, because they know how hard you are working. They are working just as hard. So it's not intimidating at all.

It makes me want to push myself. I'm addicted to being challenged. More accurately, I'm addicted to the feeling that I get when I overcame every challenge. It's exciting. I can see where I'm improving, and it only inspires me to work harder, because I want to improve more!

It's not about showing off. It's not about being the beefiest dude there. It's about becoming more fit and more healthy. The gym is such a positive place. No matter what kind of day I've had, I can go there and workout and connect with the people there, and it makes my day better.

Gosh, the more I think about it, the more I realize it's like church! A community of people who all want to improve and grow. Some have been going for years, some are just starting out. You rejoice with others when you see them taking new steps. You suffer with them and encourage them on when things get tough. You care about what's going on in each other's lives.

You look up to and try to learn from those who are more disciplined. And everyone is completely understanding when someone falls. If someone is hurt, everyone does what they can to make sure that person heals.

Okay, so I didn't mention God. But the gym is far from Godless. The owner is a christian. There are at least 10 people there who also go to the same church we do. There is an ex-marine-turned-pastor who attends the same class I do. And there are plenty of opportunities to be a light.

Wow. I don't know that I intended for this post to go this direction, but I'm glad I finally go to blog again. I finally used my new camera and took some pictures a while ago. So maybe I'll get a chance to post them this weekend. Or at least upload them onto the computer.

Well, I'm off to shower, and then bed. Have a great Friday! (And weekend!)