Wheat and sugar are poison

I don't care what anyone says, wheat and sugar are like a poison to me. For the last couple of weeks I've been eating a little crazy. I've had bread, pasta, lots and lots of sweets, definitely not good. It reached a fever pitch over the weekend and lasting until Tuesday. I had Munchies



Sugar wafers:


And topped it off with a Magnum Gold:


By yesterday I was a wreck. I constantly felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I was tired, but not just tired, exhausted. I came home from work yesterday and took an hour and a half nap. Luckily, by Tuesday night I was coming to my senses and yesterday I ate clean, really clean. Today I also ate clean and I'm starting to feel like I'm recovering. I don't feel like my stomach is sticking out a mile, I have a little more energy than I did yesterday. Things are definitely improving. I have read so much stuff on how paleo is a lie and how we can eat these things and it's fine for us. I think that was true years ago. Unfortunately we have modified our wheat so much it no longer resembles what it used to be. Also, I don't think diet is a one size fits all proposition. I think you really have to find what works for you. And I truly believe that Paleo is it. So it's back to paleo and off the crack. My body just can't take it.

Something different

Last night I had to be back at school at 6pm for an awards ceremony. With 2.5 hours to kill, if I didn't want to drive home and back, I decided to head to Crossfit Oahu to work out. I've never been there. The only other Crossfit I've been to is Kailua, and I didn't work out there I just checked in. So, I'm stepping outside my comfort zone and going someplace new with no one I know and I'm going to work out. It was okay. The people don't seem very friendly and the place is set up weird.



In the top middle, you can see some bars. Those are all the bars. There were 11 people working out all face to face with each other around these bars. Weird. I'm glad I went though and I'll go again. It was nice to walk into the place and see some familiar faces.  I saw the owner and one of the coaches who come to Kaneohe once in a while, plus a member who sometimes comes to Kaneohe. So it wasn't like I didn't know anyone. But still weird.

So the workouts.  It's been benchmark week so all of the workouts have been the Crossfit benchmarks. Wednesday night it was.Grace.  30 clean and jerks for time. I used 65# and did it in 6:08.  Thursday was my rest night. Then last night I did Cindy.  5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats AMRAP in 20 minutes. I did 11 full sets plus 5 pull ups and 6 push ups.  Last time I did Cindy I only got in 10 full sets, so there's an improvement.

In other news, my eating has been completely out of control. Yesterday I had, omelet and tater tots for breakfast from the cafeteria. Mexican pulled pork and pasta for lunch. Large mango smoothie and 3 pizza bites from Jack in the Box. 2 donut holes. 1 hamburger - no bun. I slept like crap and feel all sluggish this morning. I must lose the junk food and get back to eating real food. Going to work on that today.

I met Karen and I kicked her ass....

This is me doing Karen. Karen consists of 150 wall balls. 150!!! That's a lot of freaking wall balls. Especially when you are using a 14# medicine ball. But I did it. I did them in 13:43. I rocked that freaking bitch...... I was riding a high from having done that, RX btw..... When I realized I had also PR'd my power clean by 15#. 15#!!!! WTF!!!! Tonight I was on fire, on fire!!!!! I rocked that place. Last night was good, but tonight I really felt strong and capable again. Damn it's good to be back.

I'm Baaaaackkkkkkkk

After the train wreck that was last week, I woke Saturday with a renewed determination to get back into the game. I went to Crossfit and we started with split jerks. Because of my shoulder I've been holding back doing anything really heavy that goes over my head. That was my intention with the split jerks but I ended up doing: 45-65-75-85-95#. Not bad. Much better than I expected. So that made me feel good. Then the WOD was:

200 meter run then
10-8-6-4-2
Dumbbell Snatch balance 5#
One legged squats 12"box w/45# plate
Then another 200 meter run

My time was 8:43 which was perfectly acceptable. Later that afternoon a group from Crossfit headed out to climb the Haiku stairs. It was the first time I'd ever tried them and I did not make it to the top, but I'm okay with that. Here is a picture of the stairs;



That's just one section of the stairs and not even a really bad section. So that was my Saturday afternoon. Sunday turned out to be a rainy, dreary day and we just hung around the house all day. Today it was back to work and back to the box.
First we did overhead squats. Since I hurt my shoulder I have not been able to do overhead squats. I have tried and tried and I just could not do them. Tonight I could finally do them again. Not only could I do them, I got 5# from my PR. My last PR was 70# and tonight I got to 65#. That is awesome and amazing. I was so stoked, I can finally do overhead squats again. Then it was on to the WOD:

It's benchmark week so we got Fran:

21-15-9
Thrusters 40#
Jumping pull ups 12" box

Did it in 6:30. Woot, woot for me.

Okay, that brings us up to now which is bedtime. Good night.

The week that crashed

I started Monday morning with the intention of having a really good, on track week. My shoulder was feeling better so I could probably go a little harder at Crossfit and I was ready to get my eating back on track. Then Sunday I came down with a stuffy nose and scratchy throat. Woke up Monday feeling like I had a little bit of a head cold, but nothing I couldn't deal with. This would not derail me. By Monday afternoon my entire week had fallen apart. First I got a call that I needed to tutor on Tuesday night from 5-6pm. Bleh....Okay, I can do that. Then some friends wanted to get together on Wednesday night. We hadn't seen some of these people in 10 years and Tuesday was the only night we could all agree on. So there went Tuesday. The last straw was an email telling me I got into a training class that was on Thursday from 6-9pm. Okay, there you have it. My week just shot to hell. I decided to use this to my benefit though. My shoulder was getting progressively better, but very slowly. I decided to take the entire week off, give my shoulder a real rest, and not try to pressure myself into going to Crossfit. Unfortunately, giving up working out seemed to give me license to give up eating anything resembling food. I ate junk like there was no tomorrow. Candy, cookies, donuts, whatever. Luckily I woke up this morning with a renewed determination to put this train back on track. I have eaten well all day. I did not go to Crossfit as I was running a little late tonight. But 9am I am there. This train is back on the tracks and ready to leave the station.

Life's lessons

I just got back from Crossfit with a major AHA moment. Our workout today was as follows:

21-15-9 for time: 9:56

Box jumps - 16" box rebounding
Toes 2 bar - did on ground
200m run after each round

A number of things happened that lead to my AHA, so bear with me.

When I saw the WOD and that there was a run involved, my immediate response was OH SH*T!!!! I caught that and stopped it in it's tracks. I switched it to, it's only 200m - easy peasy. Then we had to do rebounding box jumps. Again, my initial thought was, I can't do these. I shut that down and said of course I can, I did them the other night. My next thought was, I will have to use the smallest box. I shut that one down too. The other night I used the smallest box and it was easy. I decided to use the next box up. While practicing on the 12" box, I thought it too felt kind of easy. So I tried the 16" box. Just right. Hard, but not impossible. Something I would have to work for. Perfect, I used the 16" box in my workout. Finally there was the toes to bar. I really wanted to do these but discovered that the kip hurt my shoulder. So then I tried a hanging knee to chest, but that too hurt. So I admitted defeat and did them on the floor. I was ready for the workout. I pushed myself through the entire workout. I ran all the running. I did the box jumps as fast as I could and I did the toes to bar without stopping. I pushed myself and finished it in 9:56. Not the fastest but definitely good for me. As I lay there on the floor recovering, I thought to myself that this was the first time I really pushed myself in a 21-15-9 workout. This is a short workout so it's supposed to be an all out sprint. Today it was for me and I felt really good about it. I've felt really good about my WODs lately even though I was doing less than I had previously.

As I was driving home I thought about that. I don't lift near as much as I did before my shoulder but I'm working much harder and feeling better about my workouts. I then thought on something the owner told me a couple of weeks ago, injuries are bad because you get frustrated about where you used to be and so you try to rush to get back there and hurt yourself more. Up until about 2 weeks ago, that was me. I was angry and frustrated that I had lost so much ground due to this stupid shoulder, so I tried to push things and ended up just getting more frustrated and angry. Workouts were not fun and I was not enjoying myself. So last week, when I decided to lose the excuses and just do the best I could was a real turning point for me. Since then I have been doing the hardest version I can without pain, and really pushing myself. What's happened is that I am enjoying my workouts again. I'm in a much better frame of mind. I'm not the last one done every single time anymore. And I'm making progress as evidenced by my push ups last night and rebounding on a 16" box today.

I think the lesson I'm supposed to get out of this is that I'm not in a competition with anyone but myself. Before my injury I was looking at what others did and trying to beat them and pushing myself too far. The injury set me back, but in so many ways has allowed me to see the path and move forward.

I made my choice

and I'm glad I did. This week has been truly awesome. Work is super busy. There are finals to prep and event to prepare for. May is graduation and there are so many things leading up to it. But it's good. Keeps me busy and the days just fly by. Believe me when I tell you, us teachers look forward to summer far more than the students do.

Crossfit has been going great too. My shoulder is still bothering me, but I try every move and if it hurts I modify it. I'm still getting insane workouts and I'm pushing myself within my limits. All this week the WODs have been brutal. Things like handstand push ups in 4 of the 5 WODs. I can't do handstand push ups, but it did lead to a bit of a breakthrough for me. The coaches want us to do the hardest variation that we can and since pike push ups hurt my shoulder, regular push ups were it. I started unassisted as those are still kind of hard for me. The first night I did the entire WOD like that. The next night had them again and I had to alternate between full floor ones and ones on a box, but most of them were on the floor. Then last night, there they were again. Initially I set up a band to help me, but after the first round I realized that band was useless so I moved to the floor. I did the entire WOD on the floor. During the WOD I thought to myself, when exactly did this happen? When did I become strong enough to do full push ups on the floor, unassisted? I don't know. The transition just happened and I'm glad it did. Unless there are 1000's of push ups, I don't think I will use bands anymore.

My attitude is the thing that has changed most. I have stopped thinking about where I was before I hurt my shoulder and just focus on where I am now. Before I hurt my shoulder I was doing incredible things. Lifting heavy, heavy weights. Snatching and squatting amazing amounts of weight. I can't do that RIGHT NOW. So instead of whining about not being where I was, I work slowly on getting back there. I can't dwell on the past, I must keep focused on the here and now. As a result of this attitude, I am making progress, my shoulder is slowly getting better, and I am getting stronger all over. So I will continue to focus on progress not perfection and continue to make strides.

It really is that simple

and it really is that hard. Turning the switch from off to on, for any reason, is a simple thing yet so hard to do. What I have discovered is that if I can turn it on in one area of my life, I can generally coax it on in other areas. For example, I wrote about someone's comment at Crossfit about my making excuses. Since that night I have not been allowing myself to make any excuses. I either do something or I don't - thank you Yoda. That's all. I give my best and if it happens, it happens. If not, well, next time I have to give more. That's it. It's been working out really well. Because I've had that attitude with Crossfit and things are starting to click again, it's spreading. I have a 16 page paper to write. I've had 2 weeks to write it but I've really been blocked the few times I tried to write. This morning I sat down with the conviction that I could totally do this, and it started to come. I still have a long way to go, but I'm off to a good start and feeling better about the whole thing.

Workouts lately have been good, though I have been taking it easy on my shoulder. I injured my right shoulder on April 26th doing snatches at Crossfit. It did not seem like a serious injury and had I taken some time off it probably would have gone away quickly. Instead I kept going and it's dragged out, slowly getting better. Last night it was feeling darn good but I could not do overhead squats. Something about having my arms up and squatting made it hurt. I rolled it out with a weight bar and it started moving better. This leads me to believe that it is really healed, just stiff and/or scar tissue I need to work out. So I will work on mobility with that. Because of that, I have been taking it a little easy on it. No explosive movements that could injure it. Only controlled movements. But I've still been working my ass off.

Tuesday WOD was a 12 min AMRAP:

• 5 burpees jumping to touch bar
• 15 rebounding box jumps - used 8" box
• 5 dumbell snatch - used left arm only, 1st 3 rounds 25#, last 2 rounds 35#

I got in 5 full rounds, 5 burpees, and 15 box jumps. 

Wednesday WOD was 3 rounds with a 30 minute cap: 

• 800 m run
• 80 situps
• 40 lunges

I got 2 full rounds in plus the last run.  Brutal, brutal workout

Thursday WOD was for time: 

• 42 wall balls -  8#
• 252 single unders
• 30 wall balls
• 180 single unders
• 18 wall balls
• 108 single unders 

I did it all in 12:55. 

Finally, last night's WOD was a 12 min EMOM: 

• 4 push-ups
• kettlebell swings - 25#

I got a total of 123 kettlebell swings. 

Each workout I've had a positive attitude and did my absolute best at. I was a little dissappointed in some of my performances, but that only means I have lots of room to improve. 

Now I'm off to get ready for today's workout. Saturdays are always brutal, so wish me luck.