A Bundle of Joy

I've started a new blog to document my training for the unknown and unknowable event in July. No, its not the 2010 CrossFit Games, but just as comparable, Labor and Delivery. Scott and I are expecting our first child together on July 11, 2010.  Click here for the journey of a pregnant crossfitter.

63 Days of Cheating

Robin, David and I racked our brains to come up with the perfect holiday challenge for the clients and staff at Crossfit CP and Tillman Physical Therapy. We saw real results with our Caveman Nancy challenge so it was obvious we had to include the Paleo Diet in this one. Not only that, but a majority of the American population will spend the holiday season stuffing their faces with some not so healthy foods. Why not challenge everyone to eat clean? Thanksgiving and Christmas are only 2 days out of the year, not the 63 days between Halloween and New Years Day. We wanted to keep people from falling off the wagon during the holidays, a jumpstart on those 2010 resolutions.

With diet decided we now needed accountability. What is going to keep people from giving up, giving in and cheating with all the temptations around the holidays? They needed help from their community. Ah ha! We make it a team challenge. Participants are only as strong as their weakest link. One person's success is the success of 3 other people. The same goes for weakness.

And with that we needed incentive. Money is a huge motivator. So much so that people will do anything for it. Even Tabata squats every day for 4 weeks! We always set our challenges up so that the winner takes a large portion of the group's throw-in. The pot is always worth it.

That's where we get the commitment. All our faithful clients believe that if you are paying for something you have to use it. More than just winning, a $25 buy-in is a good investment for dropping pounds, pant sizes, or cholesterol level. Imagine if $25 could change your life.

After weeks of coming up with the name, Holly Jolly Challenge, we opened up registration and did packet handout at a CFCP Happy Hour hosted by Pluckers. The turnout was amazing. 9 teams signed up and over 70 people in attendance at the happy hour. My have we grown in the last year! This is our community and we love it.

Each individual is responsible for logging their paleo diet, their daily workouts, avoiding black listed food items and keeping their teammates on track. Scores are based on a point system, so stacking the teams won't help. One cheat meal per week is allowed, but anything outside of that is a 2 point loss for the whole team. Each WOD is worth 1 point. Bonus points for meeting as a team in CFCP t-shirts and doing a WOD in a public location. There will be a final Team WOD on the last day. Recipe for success if you ask me.

I wish luck to all the teams:
3 Cleans & a Jerk, Ballwallers, The Cereal Killers, Beauty and the Beasts, The Wod Quad, Cave Dwellers, Team 8, Venom, and Team 5.

New Fran PR...3:49!

Up until last week I was number one on the Benchmark Board for Fran with a time of 3:53. Kindel beat me by 1 second. 1 second hung over me and the number one spot. This was a spot on the leader board I worked hard for and didn't want to give up.  I had something to prove to everyone, and they were expecting it. Nervously, I committed myself to make yet another attempt at a Fran PR. I asked Scott to come support and explained that I needed him there to scream in my face when I wanted to rest, to be my rock. I needed the hype of a crowd to feed off of, but didn't want anyone else to know what I was doing. Honestly, I was afraid to suck. Scott was the hype I needed. I set up my bar and deflected the questions of the unknowing. Dave and Robin both had cameras in hand and slowly the whispers made it obvious that everyone knew what was about to happen. Talk about pressure. I was nervous.

3...2...1...Go! 21 Thrusters without rest, 21 pull ups unbroken. Clock read 1:17. Now the 15's....Are you kidding me!? Everything began to breakdown. 3 sets of 5 on the thrusters and pull ups and I was on to 9's. My favorite round. 9 Thrusters without rest, then 5 pull ups. 4 Pull ups to go, and all I want to do is lay down. Scott was yelling, everyone was staring. I look up at the clock and saw I was somewhere over 3:30. 4 pull ups and I fall to the floor. Dave yells out, "3:49!" Fran is mine once again!

CFCP athletes are making progress and I have a feeling it won't be long before I'm beat again, and I'm okay with that, but I will always make an attempt to stay on top of my game. You can count on that!

Nothing Feels Quite Like A Good Snatch

In October Scott and I attended CrossFit's Olypic Lifting Cert. We spent 2 days working on Snatch, Front Squat, Clean and Jerk with the Mike Burgener. If you are anything like me the mere mention of Mike Burgener will result in a glazed starry eyed look, a WOD revealing Olympic lifts will put butterflies in your belly like a teenage girl on prom night. Getting schooled on Oly lifts by Burgener himself! I mean, the guy breeds Olympians!

There were no chairs at this cert. The lesson plan was written on the board before we arrived, but the learning and note taking was all hands on. We kicked things off with individual introductions to the class where Burgener quickly nicknamed Scott “Marine” and me “Marine’s Wife.” We responded with snickers and much pride. Saturday was dedicated solely to the Snatch, and Sunday was the remaining lifts. Burgener would walk us through a single step then released us into groups lead by one of his handpicked instructors to work on that step. We moved in this fashion until we had full comprehension of The Burgener Warm-up, the snatch skills transfer, and each lift. We performed as students, we acted as instructor, and we even played the role of an uncoordinated client. By end of day our backs were on fire, and asses kicked by PVC and a little old man with motivational consequences (YAY BURPEES!).

My new take on Olympic lifts, they are much like a choreographed dance. There are special steps to follow. The body moves through the specific points like a well oiled machine. The steps are highly technical, intricate, and missing a step will affect your entire performance. Much like a dance, rehearsal is a must! Practice, Practice Practice. Without the dress rehearsal, the show does not go on. Burgener warm up is my practice and supplementing Olympic lifts into my training is my dress rehearsal. Come Game Day, I’m prepared to put on a flawless performance.

By the end of the weekend Scott and I were ready to pack it all up and move to California just to be adopted by Burgener. Well, maybe after the kids are grown.

Full Time Life = Part Time Paleo

I'm not afraid to admit that I'm not perfect. Hahaha, I wish that were a true statement, but its a big fat lie. I'm scared to death to admit that my diet sucks on the weekends. It makes my mondays suck. I feel like crap, my eyes are puffy, and just ask my husband about my moods. Yikes! Sounds like somebody has a serious case of the mondays.

Friday
Breakfast - the norm, 3 eggs, some meat and veggies an apple and almond butter.
Snack - just almonds because I couldn't stand to eat another boiled egg this week.
Lunch - I made a date with a this super sexy guy I met quite awhile ago. We went to TX Land and Cattle and I had Sirloin and half a dry sweet potato, and side salad with vinaigrette dressing. So far so good.
Snack - Here's were it gets confusing. Probably some trail mix with peanuts and m&m's and raisins. An apple. Lots of almond butter. This was all over a few hours.
Dinner - Rudy's Turkey & extra moist Brisket. Maybe a tbsp of sauce.
Snack - a bite of a protein bar.

Saturday (Oly Cert all day)
Breakfast 3 eggs, 1 oz turkey, 1 apple. Handful of peanuts
Snack - Almonds
Lunch - HEB - Rotisserie chicken, mixed fruit, Spinach Salad w/ vinegar & oil as dressing.
Snack- Almonds. Here's where it all goes to crap (shame) the bad kind of trail mix. A few bites of the Jiff peanut butter, fully loaded with high fructose corn syrup on a protein bar. some granola cereal. 6 Baked Doritos. An apple. Grapes. Strawberries. A fig newton.
Dinner - Outback Steakhouse. A few bites of cheese fries (dipped in ranch) 2 margaritas, Salad with ving dressing, Steak & broccoli, 1 delicious pint of Neapolitan ice cream (my freakin fav!)

Sunday (More Oly Cert)
Breakfast - 3 eggs, 1 oz turkey, 1 apple, a few strawberries
Snack - grapes, strawberries
Lunch - HEB cafe on the run. Chicken, grilled veggies, asparagus. Some fruit
Snack - Some fruit, some granola cereal, an apple
Dinner - The Gristmill - (another fine night for a date with that hunk of love I am so fond of.) 1 Margarita, chips & salsa, refried beans, chicken breast with Verde sauce all over it, steamed zucs and squash. 2 fries. 2 scoops dutch chocolate ice cream....on a cone :-)

Monday
Back on track, For the most part. Only cheat was a hand full of graham crackers.
I'm tired of logging the norm, food logs are boring, so I'll just log my weekends and see if that holds me accountable.

Dry Post

Just my food log today, But for some great content check our CFCP's blog.

Breakfast 7:00am

3 fried eggs over

1 oz ground grass fed beef

onions, asparagus, zucchini

1/2 muffin (they are finally gone)

1 apple

2 Tbsp almond butter

Snack 10:15am

1 Boiled Egg

1/4 cup almonds

1 quarter sized bite of chocolate cake. (The old me would have eaten the entire cake.)

CFE WOD 2:00pm

Tabata 2mile run, 38 crappy rounds

Lunch 3:00pm

3-4 oz grass fed burgers

1/2 Zucchini, Broccoli, Cabbage, onion (over 2 cups of veggies all together)

1/2 cup Quinoa

Snack 5:30

5 Strawberries

1 Spoon full of almond butter

(Lets see if I can find some protein in the fridge. The end of the week is here and left overs are hard to come across.)

CF WOD 7:30pm

5 Rounds

15 Hang Squat Cleans #95

30 push ups

22:26 (we tried to quit at 3 rounds but stuck it out)

2 quarter sized bites of chocolate cake. (Recovery Snack ;-)

Dinner 8:30pm

1 cup fresh spinach

3 oz roast chicken

1/4 cup quinoa

some carrots, onions, cabbage (left overs)

Tomorrow is REST Day! Then its off to the Oly Cert. Yay Burpees!

Garage Gym

Its starting to look like a CrossFit gym in our garage! Scott has been plugging away for weeks,

(we had loads of stuff in the garage) and its starting to come together. Once the pull up bars were up Scott tested them out with the following WOD.

Jerks-Pull ups

10-1

9-2

8-3

7-4

6-5

5-6

4-7

3-8

2-9

1-10

Food Log

Breakfast 7:00am

3 fried eggs over onions & zucs

1 oz grass fed ground beef

2 muffins (they are like crack!)

1 gala apple

1 Tbsp almond butter

Snack 10:15am

1 boiled egg

1/4 cup almonds

CFE 20x 10sec on 5 sec off @ 9.9mph/2.5% incline

Lunch 2:00pm

3-4 oz grass fed ground beef

1 zucchini

1 celery stalk

1/2 cup broccoli

Onion & garlic

2 Tbsp olive oil

all stir fried in a pan with spices

Snack 3pm

Hand full of Logan's Trail Mix...FAIL!

(Peanuts, raisins, m&m's & almonds=inflammation!)

2 bites of ground beef

Maybe a muffin, I was on my way to a quick nap and shoveling food into my face

WOD 7:30pm - "Franish" 4:13 #75

Dinner 7:45

3-4 oz slow cooked Chicken w/ cabbage, bell peps, onions, carrots & spices

1/2 cup Quinoa

A finger dip of almond butter