3 Pounds

Okay, it's actually 2.8 pounds. But I'm UP again. And I'm starting to get frustrated.

I've been Crossfitting 4-5 days a week. I've been eating spinach. My breakfasts consist of oatmeal and spinach or hardboiled eggs and spinach. My lunches? Heaping salads, full of dark green spinach and romaine, peppers up the cracker hole, carrots and cabbage and grilled chicken. I've been having cereal or protien shakes for dinner lately because with the beautiful weather and longer days, the first thing I do upon arriving home is get my dogs outside to burn off some steam. Who wants to waste such precious time eating?

Sunday night we had brats and beer. I had one brat and two beers. Light freaking beers! And fine, the brat was full of cheese. But that shouldn't matter.

I AM losing inches still. I understand how muscle weighs more than fat. I really do. And I understand how it's common for newbie crossfitters to gain weight before losing it. But I'm not some average honkie. I'm a BIG GIRL and I have ONE HUNDRED pounds to lose before I come even close to having a normal BMI. You can't tell me that I'm going to be 270lbs of muscle. I don't believe you.

So where am I going wrong? Do I have to start cutting the tiny bit of creamer from my coffee every morning? Because I'm telling you, I'm not prepared to do that right now!

This morning, I am officially heavier than I have ever been in my entire life. Ever.

Shin Splint Hell

Need I go on?

I have been plagued by shin splints my entire life. Even as a kid, running 'the mile' was highly dreaded. Not because I didn't want to run, but because I'd be in pain. As I've gotten older and heavier, they have become worse. I went on a long distance running stint a while back. Shin splints stopped me dead in my tracks.

Last night as I pushed through my Crossfit workout, the splints flared. And I wasn't even running this time. Once I stopped moving, the pain really set in. Even walking to my truck afterwards was really tender, and the drive home? I set my cruise and only touched the pedals when I absolutely had to.

I realize that we're supposed to expect some weight gain in the beginnings of Crossfitting as muscle starts to replace fat. But with the weight I'm currently at, I wont be able to do Crossfit much longer if it continues to climb. I have got to get a grip on my eating habits and my weight. It has to come down... NOW.

Back To The Future

It was so far off that I didn't think I needed to take action at the time. But now, somehow, 15 months have passed and I'm left with less than 9 months to get in as great of shape as possible.

I don't consider myself a vain person. Looks aren't much to me. I dont often wear makeup and my hair takes me all of 90 seconds to do in the morning. But my soaring weight has plummeted my self confidence. There was a time in my adult life that I was in fantastic shape. I worked on a farm, trained hunting dogs and waitressed on the side. I didn't need to exercise to stay perfectly toned, my work took care of that. Baleing hay, working horses, getting into shoving battles with cattle, hauling heavy trays, running with the dogs... I loved that I felt fabulous wearing boxers, a tank top, boots, no makeup and my hair piled onto the top of my head. I wasn't fat. I was in the kind of shape where you don't even take notice to your own weight because you're too busy living your life.

Then one day, I decided to get a desk job. Too much time to think. Too much time to sit around. Too much time to EAT. The job isnt physically exhausting, but mentally is another story, and by the time my workday is done, I dont want to go and exercise. I am not even comfortable wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. I don't feel like my personality and my body match. So I have to change my body.

The the past months, Crossfit has helped me with the energy part of the problem. My energy is soaring, and the more I work out, the more energy I seem to have. But I gained a lot of weight in the years since beginning my desk job. Like, in the vicinity of 100lbs. It's mortifying.

So back to the future? Yeah. Um, when I first started dating Red, I was coming off another horrid relationship. He wasn't a good man and I was finally rid of him. Or so I thought. His line of work gives him an obsessive 'cop' personality and his only enjoyment seemed to be to make my life a living hell. Well, Red's cousin is getting married in December this year. And who happens to be his best friend? My horrifying ex.

Like I said, I don't consider myself a vain person. However, I do feel the need to bring some revenge. But I can't do it being 100lbs overweight. Of course my main reason for getting healthy is for my health, my future, blah blah blah. No, for real. But what better motivation to stay with it than knowing you'll be facing off with your nasty ex in less than nine months? Bring it on.

Challenge ~ Day 1

And we're off! Today is day one of my crossfit/paleo challenge and I'm off to a good start. But, I'm also only a couple of hours into my day. Yikes.

6:00am ~ Wake up
6:15am ~ 1st cup of coffee, black
6:45am ~ 1 Packet of high fiber oatmeal w/ milk (instead of water, which I realize now is not the paleo thing to do. Lol!)
6:53am ~ 1 Hard boiled egg
7:00am ~ 2nd cup of coffee w/ creamer

I packed my lunch today and included some healthy snacks. Will be posted once I consume them. :o) Crossfit at the Box tonight.

9:11am ~ 3rd cup of coffee, black
9:21am ~ small handful of plain mixed nuts (almonds, cashews and pecans)
10:36am ~ 18 baby carrots

I'm currently a quarter of the way through a 1 liter bottle of water. Water intake will pick up now as i usually get hungry around this time, since I have a late lunch of 1pm.

Disappointment Comes in Pounds & A Challenge

I realize that you're not supposed to put too much stock into the number on the scale. But... I've been doing a steady climb towards the 300 mark for a few years now. It's terrifying. And this morning, I hit my heaviest weight, ever. I guess I'm not sure how it even happened. I've been working my ass off doing Crossfit. I've been eating healthier lately than I have in years. So how I managed to gain 10.2lbs in exactly one week is completely beyond me. I almost cried right there on the spot. I've been working so hard. Of the last 7 days, I've done Crossfit on 5 of them. Over the weekend, there was little access to decent food. However, I only ate about 3x because chili dogs, chili fries and cheese covered doughnuts were for once not appetizing to me. Maybe it was all of the soda I consumed? But 10lbs worth?

I know I'm healthy, in the sense that it's not a medical issue. I had a complete physical in January. Maybe because it's that time of the month for me. Sorry if any men read this blog. Haha! But I'm just keepin' it real. I do tend to gain weight around that time. But not 10lbs.

I'm taking another step starting tomorrow AM. For one single week, I'm challenging myself. I'm going 3 days on, 1 day off Crossfit, and I'm going as strictly Paleo as humanly possible for me. I'm waking up early every morning to walk my dogs. This isn't the rest of my life. That's not reality at this point. But for the next 7 days, can I do it?

For the next 7 days, I will record every move I make and every drop/ounce of food and drink that enters my mouth, including the time of day.

This is my 7 day Crossfit/Paleo Challenge.

Crossfit... anywhere.

I made certain to go to the Crossfit gym last Friday because I thought for sure that there would be no chance to workout over the weekend. We were, after all, busy busy at the state Pet Expo. Our feet hurt. We were exhausted. There was little access to decent food. And there was just too much that needed to be done to even think about fitting in a workout anywhere. On top of that, there werent any gyms nearby. No, that's a bit fat lie. There was a 24 hour fitness parked right in front of our hotel room window. But I wasn't working out.


One of the very attractive angles of Crossfit is that you can do it virtually anywhere, with little to no equipment needed. I remember the first time I walked into the Crossfit gym. It was a room with a bar strung across from wall to wall, some plate weights and a couple of those rings that you only see Olympians and gymnasts use. No weight machines. No treadmills. No elliptical machines. None of those stupid ab contraptions that you strap yourself into and do 'upright crunches'.

So back to the expo. My Aussie girl and I were there with the MN Disc Dog Club. The club's founder and former Prez was there, and he also happens to be one of my Crossfit coaches. So I guess I'm not sure where I thought that I would escape working out. So when he sat down next to me and said 'the 'stairs' 4x for time', I laughed at him. But he wasn't kidding. And I stopped laughing. Because these were 'the stairs'.

4 flights of concrete hell. Going up sucks. Coming down sucks even more. Your legs stop working and the ugly steps start blending together by the halfway mark, so you need to work extra hard to keep your cool or you're going to tumble. I wouldn't expect to keep any teeth, either.

We got to make many lovely trips up and down these stairs, because it was the only decent way to let your dog potty.

You can Crossfit anywhere. And I mean, anywhere. Even in a dark florescent lit concrete Everest.

Note to self: Don't let CF coach see these kinds of opportunities. Or you might have to climb the stairs for time. *grin*

Oh, and 5:17. :o)

Nutrition

My poor body. I'm 'nutritionally challenged'. I know, for the most part, what's good for me and what's not. But does that mean I always make the right choices when it comes to food and drink? Not even close. I have no will power.

One of the many pitfalls of an office job is the fact that everybody is always bringing crap. Yesterday, our HR lady brought two kinds of brownies, this caramel puff stuff, pretzels... Because it's employee appreciation week. Friday, they are ordering pizza for the company. Luckily for me, the pizza lover, I took Friday off to prep for this weekend's pet expo. Dodged that marinara covered bullet.

It's also a well known fact that if you need to get rid of something at home, food wise, you've only to bring it here to work. My coworkers are a ravenous bunch and will polish off anything edible.

On top of that, sitting at a computer for 9 hours a day can get a little tedious, and what better way to break it up than by standing in front of the vending machines? Stupid vending machines.

Since starting Crossfit, we've been learning more and more about this Paleo concept. Also known as the caveman diet. You basically only consume what was available to the caveman. Red meat, vegetables, fruits and nuts and seeds. So Red and I have been experimenting a little bit. We recently started making these delicious, fast omelets in the mornings. 2 eggs, a half a green bell pepper and a hand full of blueberries on the side. So yum, and healthy. Starting off the right way in the morning will help me keep my head about me when choosing meals for the rest of the day.

It's definitely not... fun. I love cheese and pasta. Heavy foods that make you fat. And it's going to be a struggle for me to cut them down and eventually out. Bread? Cheesecake? Fuggedaboudit.

One of my tools? A food journal, recommended to me by my cf coaches. Writing it down is a pain in the ass. But if I know that somebody may look at it, like a coach, then I'll be less likely to pull something from the vending machine because I dont want them seeing that I eat that stuff. So if I dont eat it, I dont have to write it down. I'm also going to do my best to count calories. I'm using Sparkpeople's nutrition tracker. So that's two places that I need to record my food/drink intake, which is annoying. So the less I eat, the less I have to record. And the tracker recognizes most foods so it has all of its nutrition information right there.

Getting healthy is hard work. But do I really want to ruin my ass kicking crossfit workout by swallowing a ding dong? Really not. I work too hard for such a thing.

I saw it

I just saw another blogger refer to herself as a deadbeat blogger. That totally describes me.

Anyways, bear with me as I work on this blog. I did some random html stuff, which I honestly dont understand, in order to turn this into a 3 column blog. As it turns out, I dont like the look of 3 columns afterall and now I cant undo it. So bear with me!

Crossfit is still kicking my ass. But in a good way! My baby sister joined me last night. She texted me at 8pm Monday night saying she had totally stuffed her face and when was I going to Crossfit again. (apparently I rave about it... lol!). So, she joined me, got her ass beat by the coaches... and loved every minute of it! She said we were all insane. I think she called us animals at one point too.

My sister and I are nothing alike. One thing we do have in common is that we hate exercising and we loooove food. Not healthy food, but heavy, terrible for you food. And she's just enough like me that the challenges she faced last night at Crossfit fueled her need to overcome it, regardless of how she feels about working out.

On another note, we've been working on deadlifts recently. Last week, I maxed out (like MAXED out) at 135lbs. Less than a week ago. Last night, I maxed out at 185! I have no idea how that happened. Not a single clue. But I can be proud of my achievement. Crossfit makes me happy and confident. I'm a different person in that gym. I'm not happy and confident by nature. My horoscope called me a born leader the other day. And I'm soooo not. I'm a born follower if anything. But in the gym, I want to lead. I want to be better than I was before.