Days 89 & 90

Day 89

For breakfast I had an egg bake and a few pieces of bacon. At lunch time I had some of my black currant tea. That and the raspberry green tea are quickly becoming my favorites. I am going to need more fast. It’s a good thing I plan on going back to the City Market this coming weekend. I also had some of the vegetable beef soup that Ed made. It was also very fantastic. So much so that I also had another big cup of soup for dinner.

I did not work out on my lunch break, I got busy with other things. However, I was not going to let the day turn in to an unplanned rest day. So after Ed went out to the garage to lift and he was able to stay inside with the kids, I went out there. I starter off with 5 push presses at 85 pounds. Then I moved to the push jerk and did a 3×3 at 105, 115 and 125.

I need to work on squatting under my snatches more so then I did 5 reps of squat snatches at 65 pounds. I then moved to power snatches and did 3 at 75, 3 at 85, 1 at 95 and 1 at 100 pounds. I went for 105 and failed twice. I wasn’t dropping under it properly. I know that’s my problem. As such I gave myself a 10 burpee penalty. I decided that when I fail at something for a stupid reason I am going to give myself a burpee penalty.

Anyway, moving right along… as the 105 pound bar was just sitting on the floor and needed re-racked, I used it for 5 reps of power cleans. After racking the bar I realized I hadn’t done bent over rows in a while, so I wrapped up my lifting with 3×10 at 65, 85 and 105 pounds.

I finished my workout with 30 air squats and lunges, 5 per leg, while holding a 25 pound plate in each hand.

Day 90

It’s here at last. Day 90 of 90. I wanted to make this day something to remember, and I will.

Breakfast was simple, I had some bacon. Bacon is always a good thing. Bacon makes me happy. Around early afternoon I had 2 eggs scrambled with diced up steak and garlic. They were tasty.

When looking at the whiteboard online I noticed that yesterday at my box they did max effort sit-ups. Since I have an ab-mat at home I decided that would be a wonderful idea. I made a space on the floor in my bedroom so that I could have music going of my choice, also so I could monitor the time more easily, and then got down to business. I’m not going to lie, my goal was based on what was recorded. One girl did 218, another did 150. I wanted to at least be between them. I kept a steady pace and as I was making it past 100 I was sure I could get at least 151. I did, and then I kept going. As I rounded up to 200 I told myself there was no reason that I couldn’t get 219. I did… and I kept going. I kept going for 17.5 minutes. I ended up with 320. I think I could have kept going, but I have a concert I am going to tomorrow and I don’t want to hate life while I am there.

After the workout I had some dark chocolate. I thought I earned it.

After work I went to the box. The first workout was an AMRAP. It was as many reps in 3 minutes as you can of: Deadlift, 1555 lbs Rest 2 minutes Clean & Jerk, 95 lbs Rest 1 min Pull-up Rest 1 min 100 Double Unders. I did 36 deadlifts, 18 clean and jerks and 26 pull ups.

Club started off with 8 rounds of 1 clean, 1 hang squat clean and 1 jerk (without putting the bar down) every 45 seconds. I was exhausted and used 95 pounds. Next time I will definitely go higher. Then it was time to work for a 3 rep max on deadlifts. I warmed up with 195 and then moved my way up doing 215, 225, 235 and ending with 245. It felt good. I think I could have done more, but I ran out of time.

Back at home I had a salad with home made dressing and two bunless burgers with my homemade paleo ketchup.

Looking back on these 90 days I am proud of what I have accomplished, but I know I can do more. I can do better. This isn’t the end. It’s barely even the beginning. My diet is getting better and better and I am getting stronger and stronger. I know the next 90 days are going to be amazing. I hope you can come along with me.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out the progress page for updated pictures and weight. My daughter has run off with my tape measure so I have to run to the store tomorrow to get one. I will have an update on that posted tomorrow.

Day 88

Today was a good day. The morning started off a bit hectic due to sleeping in a little later than planned but that was a worthy trade off. Thankfully last night I had already cooked up bacon and a breakfast bake, so breakfast was a simple matter of reheating and waiting for coffee.

Ed & I went to the morning bootcamp and it was awesome. I think it was called The Twisted Carnival… don’t quote me on that. Anyway, there were 6 stations. Round 1 you did each station for 2 minutes. Round 2 you did each station for 1:40. First station was the rower (at least it was for me). After that there was an agility course. I am proud to say I manager to jump over obstacles without falling wrong and twisting my ankle. That was very nice. Then we moved on to a partner station were you did a wall ball toss over the pull up bar to your partner and just passed it back and forth. I know all stations were the same amount of time, but this one took forever. On the second round through you did a burpee after throwing the ball, while trusting your partner would pay attention and not throw it back while you were still down. Ed was good and didn’t throw the ball on my head.

The next station was also a partner station. This time one person would do a farmer’s carry with a kettlebell in each hand and go up and back a set distance while the other person was doing lunges (second round was air squats). For my first trip I used 40 pound kettlebells. For the rest I used 55 pounds. Once that was done we moved to the ab station. It consisted of sit-ups, plank up-downs and v-ups. Round one you did 10 of each before repeating the moves, round two you did 5 of each. The final station had 6 slam balls followed by 6 lateral jumps on the first round or 6 push ups for the second round. My pace was much better on round 2. It was the final station and I wanted to make sure to “empty the tank” before the workout was over. Oh, and I used the 20 pound ball for each round.

After working out and being able to breath again, Ed & I went to the City Market. We picked up a bunch of spices and some produce – yellow peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, grapes, tomatoes, apples and some loose leaf tea. We really need to do that more often. I think we agreed that it is going to become a weekly thing. Especially since most items are a lot cheaper than the grocery store. I’m really excited about the tea we picked up. I have never bought loose leaf tea before today and so we spent a little time deciding. We ended up getting one called gunpowder that is a strong green tea, raspberry green tea and black currant. I have had two glasses of the raspberry green tea today. I love it.

Ed made vegetable beef soup for dinner but while it was cooking we were both very hungry and not well behaved at all. I ate a bunch of tortilla chips with rotel dip. This time it had some taco meat mixed in with it. Ed loves my paleo taco seasoning and cooked up some tacos the other night when I was out. I also had a corona, with a lime. You have to have the lime in it. Just isn’t right otherwise.

Two more days. I plan on doing some heavy lifting tomorrow, so it’s time for me to get some rest.

Days 85, 86 & 87

Day 85

I had a late breakfast/lunch/brunch. I cooked up a couple of hamburger patties and had that with my paleo ketchup. I also had some celery, carrots, a banana and some grapes.

During my lunch break I did some front squats. I warmed up with 5 reps at 45, 5 and 65 and 3 at 95. Then I moved in to a 3×3 at 115, 135 and 155. They felt pretty good. I had already seen what the evening WOD at the box was going to be and I didn’t want to overdo it so I called it there. After work I went to the gym where we started off with a 3×3 of back squats. I did two warm up rounds of 3 at 105 and 135. I then did 155, 185 and 190. I think I could have done more, but again, I didn’t want to exhaust myself before the WOD. It was a chipper with 20 each of thrusters, sumo deadlift highpulls, push jerks, overhead squats and front squats, all at 65 pounds. The kicker here is that at the top of every minute you had to do 4 burpees. I completed it in 14:05. First minute I got 18 thrusters. That was the most I have strung together at that weight and I only stopped because it was almost time for the burpees. That makes me feel more confident for the next time I meet Fran.

Ed made dinner. We had bacon wrapped chicken breasts covered with pineapple. I love that stuff. We had sweet potatoes with butter as a side.

Day 86

For breakfast I had a banana and some bacon. It was a very busy day at work and I was barely away from my desk. For lunch I had a couple of eggs over medium. I also had some dark chocolate. Trust me, it was needed.

My whole body ached and so it was a rest day.

For dinner I fixed some shredded pork with some diced baby potatoes that were covered with Italian seasoning and baked. I made a small batch to keep me from eating too many. I used to eat the crap out of those things.

After dinner Ed & I chilled with some wine. That’s pretty much my favorite part of the day.

Day 87

Yay Saturday. I got up and cooked some pancakes for the munchkins. I made myself a couple of eggs. Then it was time to head tot he gym for the OnRamp. Again I demo’d a LOT of wallballs at 14 pounds, did some double unders, box jumps (24 inch) and pushups. My double unders were not working well today. 7 was the magic number that I just couldn’t get past. It might be time to do them everytime I am there.

Back home I didn’t have a “real meal” after that. I munched on celery, carrots, tortilla chips with velveeta/rotel dip and dark chocolate. Yes, it wasn’t the best dining choice I could have made. However I am feeling a bit moody and hormonal and it kept me sane.

I was cranky most of the evening until I decided it was time to build a pillow/couch cushion/table/step-stool/blanket fort of epicness. I wish I had a picture. Ed & I both got in it with Tyr & Freya. It was much fun. I really needed it.

I can’t believe there are only three days left to this. I think I am going to have to end this with a bang. Day 90 falls on club night. I think that is very appropriate. I also think that it’s time to see if I can hit a couple more PR’s. Today was barely an active rest day, but I am definitely back at it tomorrow.

Days 78-84

Day 78

Today I had to planned on doing the snatch ladder from the CrossFit Open last year. I got through the first 30 reps at 45 pounds and my forearms were on fire. I had been mobbing my calves a lot and neglected my forearms. So, I called it a day there. However, I did get those reps completed in under two minutes. That I was happy about. It was somewhere around 1:42. I have lost the post-it that I wrote it on, so that is an estimate. I stayed gluten free all day as well. So, yeah for that.

Day 79

Today I had to drive half way across the state to get my oldest kids. I didn’t eat enough on during the work hours and so I caved on the way out of town and got some orange chicken from Panda Express. It was delicious. I only partially regret it. After getting home I went out dancing with some friends. It was fun. I must do this more.

Days 80-81

My oldest son had a wrestling tournament closer to my dad’s house than my own on Saturday so we spent the day before and the night there. Onramp at the gym was cancelled for the day on Saturday and so I got to sleep in. That was awesome. Ed made pancakes for breakfast because DJ doesn’t like eggs. Weird kid, but I love him. We had dinner at my dad’s. We had salad, baked potatoes and steak. It was delicious. There was also wine. My father brews beer and wine. Not to brag, but he makes the best Pinot I have ever had. That’s not what we had that night, I can’t remember what we drank but it was red and it was awesome. Not so awesome, however, is the fact I forgot to mooch a couple of bottles off of him.

Sunday was DJ’s wrestling tournament. He did not win, but he did well. This season he doesn’t seem to have the same fire for it as he had last year but the last match looked like it might be coming back.  There was no eating well on Sunday. I am not going to lie about that. It just didn’t happen. We drove home after the tournament and stopped at White Castle on the way. There is no White Castle in KC. That makes me sad but is probably a good thing.

Day 82

Today was the day I was supposed to meet my kids’ father for the great kid exchange but he ended up in the hospital with chest pains. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like a heart issue. I haven’t heard the final diagnosis but they were leaning towards possible issues with his gallbladder. I hope it gets all straightened out soon. Ed & I spent the day cleaning and bonding with the kiddos.

Day 83

My ex got released from the hospital today and so we made the kid swap. As such, I had to miss my regularly scheduled double dose of evening workouts on Tuesdays. Yeah, I was kind of jonesing for a workout. Not going to lie. But I had to work and as soon as I got off work I was in the car. Thanks to two car accidents I didn’t get home until after 9.

Day 84

Today came the full return to lifting and eating clean. Breakfast was 2 eggs scrambled with green & orange peppers and some diced steak along with a banana and some grapes. It was a late breakfast and so I didn’t eat before going out for my lunch time WOD. First I did strict presses. 5 @ 45, 3 @ 65, 2 @ 85, 1 @ 95 ad 1 @ 100. That final rep was a 4 pound PR. I like that. That makes me happy.

Then it was time for deadlifts. I did 3 rounds AMRAP at 80% of my 1 rep max. That’s 245 pounds. First round was 6 reps, second was 5 and last was 4. I tried for a fifth one in that last round but barely got it off the floor. I finished up with 100 AbMat sit-ups in 3:14.

Ladies, a tip, don’t do 100 AbMat sit-ups without a yoga mat under the AbMat and don’t wear a thong. Just don’t. It’s not pretty. It’s not pleasant.

After work was the OnRamp class. We went over hang power cleans and burpees. Everyone loves burpees, right? Yeah, me neither.

Ed & I went out for dinner at Ghengis Khan. I was good and totally skipped the noodles in the first round. I made very careful choices and managed to be gluten free for that one. Round two I believe was still gluten free but this time I had some rice noodles. I love Ghengis Khan. It’s a Mongolian Grill where you have FULL control over every part. There are no pre-made sauces like at BD’s. There is garlic water, ginger water, vinegar, wine and a bunch of other things that you add to create your own flavor. For dessert I had a slice of orange, some pineapple and a couple small pieces of watermelon.

Now that I am all caught up, I am going to bed.

Day 76

Fully back at it today. Breakfast was a banana and a 3 egg omelet with green & orange peppers and left over pork roast. I cooked the eggs in some of the fat from the pork roast.  Lunch was a steak with some carrots, zucchini and yellow squash sauteed in olive oil.

It was really good doing a lunch time WOD again, despite the fact the every muscle in my body is sore. It’s like a wrestled a bear or something yesterday. I started off with something I had never done before, a bent-over T-Bar row. If you’re not sure what that is, check out this video. Let me know when you’re done.

All good? Okay, carrying on. So I did a 5×6 of that starting at 60 pounds and moving up by 10 pounds each round, ending at 110. The I worked on my hang power cleans. I did 5,5,3,3,1,1, at 45, 65, 85, 100, 105, 115 and 120. I then finished with a mini-wod of 3 rounds of 10 reps each of the following moves – Farmers carry box step ups (10 pound plate in each hand), abmat sit-ups, air squats and push ups. Next time I am going to try the 25 pound plates and see how they feel on the step-ups.

After work it was time for the on-ramp class. I demo’d wall balls at 14 pounds. They felt good. Maybe next time I will use the 16 pound just to get myself more used to the heavier weight. I also demo’d box jumps and apparently I don’t bend my knees very much before I jump. One of the new guys found that impressive. That made me feel good, even though I didn’t know I did that. Final demo was kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls. I started off demo’ing at 35 pounds and then I tried a few reps and 55 and a few at 70 just to see if I could do them properly. I’m sure glad it worked out. Wouldn’t have looked very good to fail while showing people how it’s done.

Next it was time to meet Jill to go shopping for a bridesmaid dress. I am soooo not a bridezilla and my only requirement was that it be red. We found a really cute dress and she looks smashing in it, if I do say so myself. One day that girl will realize how pretty she is. ❤ ya Jill.

Back at home Ed had cooked some ground beef in my paleo taco seasoning. I made myself a taco salad. It wasn’t 100% paleo with the cheese and refried beans, but I did skip the taco shells and tostada shells. Side note, my spellchecker wants to correct tostada to photostat. Weird. I just thought you should know that.

I have decided that tomorrow I am going to redo WOD 12.2 from last year’s open. It’s a snatch ladder with a ten minute time cap. 30 reps at 45 pounds, 30 at 75, 30 at 100 and 30 at 120. You get as far as you can in the 10 minutes. One bar, you are responsible for changing the weights. Last year I got 61 reps. I got 100 pound snatch up once and then couldn’t do it again for months. I got trapped in my head. I have since 1 rep maxed at 105. I would love to get 90 reps tomorrow but I will be happy with anything over 62. Wish me luck.

Days 72-75

I’ve been a bad girl. I’ve been meaning to sign on here and update but it’s been one thing after another. It’s no excuse but that’s just how it goes some times. Also, I haven’t eaten very well recently. It was my birthday weekend and I allowed myself to cave a few times. There were cupcakes, breaded chicken and fast food fries. And, aside from the few lifts I demo’d on Sunday, there was not very much working out. I planned on getting back on track yesterday and food wise I was, but my baby boy was sick and I didn’t feel right going out to lift weights while he was feeling so bad.

Today I am back at everything full swing. For breakfast I had a banana and bacon. For lunch I had steak, bacon and celery. For dinner I had pork roast and a couple of sweet potatoes with butter. I was just going to have one, but it was post-wod and I was starving.

Tonight, as is usual on Tuesdays, I attended two classes. First we did a 20 rep max back squat – unbroken. I did 155 pounds. Last time I did it I used 145. I was very grateful for Ed who was spotting me and pushing me through the last 5. Then we did a WOD that had 30 reps of bear complexes. Not only that, every time you dropped the bar you had to do 2 burpees, 4 box jumps and 6 wall balls. I completed it in 15:38, 2:10 faster than the last time I did it. I broke the reps up in to 8, 8, 7 and 7. Next time I hope to do 10, 10 and 10. Oh, and I used 75 pounds. If you have never seen a bear complex or are not sure what they are, check out this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Laa7BJHJWrw

After that was the Club WOD. I did a 5,5,3,1,1,0 of split jerks. It was supposed to be a 5,3,3,1,1,1 but it didn’t work out that way. The bear left me more drained that I expected and I couldn’t go as high as I wanted. The “warm-up round” wasn’t so much a warm up after all. I did 95, 105, 115, 135, 145 and then failed my two attempts at 155. I just couldn’t get my feet to move. There was no dropping under the bar. I will need to work on this some more so that it doesn’t fail when I am exhausted. Then it was a 3 position snatch pull, 5 rounds of 2 reps. I did 95, 105, 115, 125 and 135. I did use the hook grip and my thumbs are not liking me.

I can tell that I am going to feel this tomorrow. It’s okay though, I have my foam roller to get me through it.

Days 70 & 71

Yesterday was an unplanned rest day. My wrist, well actually, the joint at the base of my thumb, was causing me some pain. I’m not sure what I did to it but when I held the jar of almond butter with my left hand and tried to take the lid off, I thought I was going to die. It wasn’t constant pain. Just certain ways I moved it or gripped things caused pain. So I babied it all day.

For breakfast I had some turkey. For lunch I had a steak on a bed of lettuce with some celery, carrots and almond butter to dip the celery in.

It was pretty tasty. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

For dinner Ed & I went out. We went to make some plans and arrangements for our upcoming wedding. I had some basil cream stuffed chicken, brisket, mashed potatoes, baby new potatoes and a ceaser salad. Of course there was cake. I didn’t want it but for the sake of my wedding guests I HAD to taste it. I would hate to serve dry cake or something that tasted horrible. You believe me, right? It was ALL for the sake of my family and friends. My sacrifice was for you.

Moving right along….

Back home the pain in my hand was getting pretty bad. So I had some liquid painkillers and got put to bed.

This morning I had a banana and the last of the turkey for breakfast. For lunch I had some chicken in awesome sauce and celery. After work it was time to hit the gym. I can’t lie, I was nervous. After all Fran was making an appearance. I haven’t seen her in over a year and that was before I was able to do a pull-up. Throw in my fears of not being able to hold the bar or the pull up bar and I was only hoping to get through it alive. I paced myself through the thrusters. I took longer than I should have, I know now, but I didn’t want to be too exhausted for my pull-ups. I managed to finish her in 11:03. So now I have my first RX Fran time and a place to build on. Next time I want to have it under 10 minutes. The after WOD finisher was 100 ab mat sit-ups and 25 ball slams at 20 pounds.

For dinner Ed cooked chicken in Italian seasonings with pasta sauce and sauteed squash and zucchini. It was pretty tasty. He should cook more often. Hint, hint. I love you babe. 🙂

Day 69

This morning I had a late breakfast but I didn’t let my hunger lead to bad food choices. I had two eggs over medium and bacon. For lunch I had turkey and half of a large sweet potato with butter. Ed got off of work early today and so I was nice and split the last sweet potato with him.

My forearms felt better today but not great so I spent more time digging the lacrosse ball in to the sore muscles.

The first workout of the night I had a goal of getting 8 rounds. It was a 15 minute AMRAP of 5 power snatches at 95 pounds and 20 double unders. My double unders weren’t exactly cooperating and I know my form was a bit off on the snatches. My 1 rep max is hanging out at 105, so 95 was a bit heavy. I got 7 rounds plus 1 snatch. Not exactly what I wanted but I am not disappointed.

Strength work tonight started off with 12 minutes of snatch work ending with a 3×1. This was focusing on proper form for the full or squat snatch. I do have a bit of trouble dropping under it when the weight gets heavy. I know that B.E. is right when he said something about me getting bigger numbers once I finally get that drop right. So a lot of my “home work” will include light weight with lots of reps of full squat snatches. I want 135 before the year is over damnit.

After that we did high bar back squats – 3×5. I did a warm up set at 85. Then I did 135, 155 and 155. I could have gone heavier but Holly & I both were leaning a bit forward on the second round so we agreed that we needed to focus on keeping the chest up through out the movement.

I skipped the metcon and went over to help with the rather large onramp class. They were working on snatches and something happened that made me feel pretty damn good. I was trying to help one of the women understand the bar path and keeping it close to the body during the lock out overhead portion of the move. I showed it to her in slow motion with the pvc pipe and then had her run through it a few times. She said people had been telling her the same things over and over about it but that it didn’t make sense until then. Her next three reps, while not perfect, were a LOT closer to the body. I’m very glad I was able to help flip that light switch in her mind.

Dinner tonight was a salad with chicken, carrots, celery, green peppers, romaine lettuce (or maybe it was red leaf, Ed fixed it for me) and homemade Italian dressing. I also had one glass of “Rum Punch” because my wrist was hurting quite a bit. I’m not sure exactly what I did to it. I am taking a rest day tomorrow to recover and do some mobility. I have heard rumors a certain WOD is returning Thursday and I want to be ready for her.

Day 68

Today was a much needed rest day. My forearms were so tight that the pinky on my right had was a little numb and it hurt to type. My day job involves a lot of typing so I spent a very large part of the day having my forearms become close and personal friends with the lacrosse ball. They are a bit better tonight but I am sure it will continue tomorrow.

Breakfast was an egg over medium, half of an apple and some turkey breast. Lunch was some more turkey breast and a sweet potato with butter. Dinner was a couple of burgers with bacon (and a lot of bacon quality testing while Ed was cooking) and paleo ketchup on top of some lettuce. I also had a carrot just because I like carrots and it was there.

Tonight Ed & I watched The Biggest Loser. Mostly because we knew some big names from CrossFit would be on there. It was really awesome to see them help push people through the workout and motivate them with positive reinforcement. That compassion and community mentality is what captivated me with CrossFit from the beginning. I don’t do well with someone screaming in my face and making me feel like less of a human. Most people don’t. With that said, I am not surprised Jillian has the smallest team. I’m just saying…

Anyway, tomorrow I am back at it. The posted workout at the gym is a 15 minute AMRAP of 5 power snatches and 20 double unders. The last time I did this workout I completed 8 rounds and I did not do the RX weight. That was about 9 months ago. This time I am going to do the RX weight of 95 pounds and my goal is to still complete at least 8 rounds. I know I can do this if my double unders are on. I recently pr’d with 40 unbroken. I should be able to get a couple of rounds with 20 unbroken.

Wish me luck.

Day 67

This morning Ed made scrambled eggs for breakfast. Then we did something we haven’t done in ages. We went to a bootcamp class at the gym. We have decided to make sure to attend one every other Sunday. So all of my gym peeps, please feel free to hold us to that. I haven’t been in one of Cara’s classes since I was able to attend during lunch hours. She’s as evil as I remember and I thank her for that. The workout included burpees, slam balls, thrusters, ring rows, squat jumps, box jumps, rowing and plank up-downs. The finisher was 3 rounds with a partner of 10 medball sit ups, 10 med ball toss (back & forth to partner on box jumps) and 10 roman twists.

For lunch we had grass feed beef stew meat cooked in a mixture of olive oil, red wine vinegar and liquid aminos (a soy sauce substitue) and a banana. Dinner was smoked turkey breast and a sweet potato with butter. There was some dark chocolate today and one of my dad’s island drinks. I call it that because he got the recipe while on a cruise. 1 part sour, 2 parts sweet, 3 parts strong and 4 parts weak.

For the most part it was a good day. However, I got some bad news at night. Another friend from high school passed away. This one wasn’t so much a friend as an ex. I wouldn’t say we parted on bad terms. We were both young and still figuring out who we were. I haven’t seen him since high school but there’s a song that reminds me of him.

And so, this one’s for you Trevor.

Rest in Peace.