04/30/2012 – PJs, DUs, and BPs

Hello Monday, why do you have to come so soon? Can’t I get an extra day to do nothing? The only reason why I actually like Mondays is because I get to workout. BTW, I’ve lost 1 pound since starting the Leangains protocol. I’m pretty happy about that considering I’ve been able to eat a lot of what I want and like. Slow and steady will probably win the race for me.

We started a new cycle today and we were greeted with Push Jerks. Here were my loads for the day.

Push Jerk: 63#(5)-73#(3)-83#(4)-93#(3)-103#(3)

I have to remember to setup properly and have the core tight. The heavier I go, the more I will feel it in my back if I don’t setup right. I have to remember to be explosive too.

3- 5Minute Rounds:

Row 400m

Max Double Unders

1 Minute Rest

Result: 160 Double Unders

This wasn’t easy, and I ain’t no speed demon like Fitbomb who got over 250 DUs. Sigh.

I got to work and quickly did my bench press sets. I did a 3×5 warmup set working up to 75#, and then hit the bench press RPT style.

Bench Press:90#(6)-85#(10)-75#(12)

Every week I’m trying to raise my bench by 5 pounds. We’ll see how it holds. I pretty much went to failure with the 90# weight, and thank god I had a spotter there. To finish up, I did 2 sets of 16 bodyweight push ups(chest to deck). This will help me with Murph.

I hope everyone started their day off right like I did. This workout left me energized for a busy busy day sitting at my desk.

04/28-04/29: Weekend Recap of Good Eats

What a weekend! Our weekend turned out to be busier than expected. Not only did I have to work, and we had to take both sets of parents out for two separate birthday dinners, but our friends from LA decided to came to visit last minute as well. They stayed with us and we had a packed house. It was definitely a nice surprise. We love having guests at our house, especially one’s with other kids because they can occupy each other while the adults hang out. 🙂 Yes, I’m a bit selfish!

Fasting felt great even though I woke up starving both mornings. After a few hours, the feeling just went away. I also took all the kids on short walks, so I got my LISS(Low Intensity Steady State) for 20 minutes each day. I didn’t eat planned meals like I do on the weekends, except for breakfast.

Here is what I started with on Saturday:

Lunch came around and 4 adults munched on a GrassFed Rib-eye that I had in the freezer from last week.

We took my parents to Mizu Sushi Bar & Grill for their birthdays. I’m so disappointed with the food and how much we spent at this restaurant. I left still feeling hungry and irritated. But here’s what I ate.

A few pieces of Sunburn Tuna.

3 pieces of the Sakura Roll(The best thing there)

And 1 Unagi Hand Roll(no rice or teriyaki sauce, and no picture.) Eeeeh, I could of done without the Unagi Hand Roll, but I wanted to leave the restaurant with something. It was still disappointing. All show, no flavor.

On Sunday, I went to the Campbell Farmer’s Market and picked up some veggies. I prepped my breakfast for the week, and Sous Vide some chicken breast for lunch. My meals will be very similar to last weeks. I’m going to try to stick to fish most of the week, especially on training days.

I broke my fast around 12 after grilling up some sausages for our guests. I had my 2 whole eggs plus 3 egg whites with a 4oz beef patty.

After, I munched on some chicken beer sausage from 4505 Meats. That was good! I was trying to save my tummy for good eats at night. We took hubby’s Dad out for his birthday at Henry’s Hi-Life. We haven’t been there in awhile, so I knew it was going to be epic. I got the chicken and ribs combo, upgraded my dish to baby back ribs. Killed most of the chicken, and about 4 ribs. The garlic bread was staring at me, and smelled so good. But nope, I resisted.

All my eats this weekend weren’t exactly Whole30 approved, and there were extra calories in there from sauces. I don’t think it’s going to kill me though in terms of losing weight. I just can’t eat like that everyday, or every weekend. Anyways, I hope everyone’s weekend was filled with good eats and good fun.

Till next time!

04/27/2012 – Good Eats

Aaaah Friday! Today was my Friday off but I had to go into work for a few hours to get a document done. Looks like I will be working on and off all weekend long to get the done by Monday morning. When I was at work, I got an extra lifting session in. That lifting session left me ravenous!

I got home, quickly baked my sweet potato fries and scarfed down my breakfast at 11:30. Egg white omelet, sweet potato fries, and roasted chestnuts.

Either the breakfast wasn’t big enough or I was bored because about 2 hours later I ate both of my chicken wraps. One with Applegate Farms Organic Roasted Chicken, and one with chicken breast and cranberries.

I should of stopped there, but I was still hungry. I toasted up a slice of Ezekiel Bread. NOM NOM.

Being at home and being hungry is not a good thing. I finally was able to get one of the boys out and walk around the neighborhood. That surprised my appetite a bit, but we were still munching on dried cranberries.

I ate dinner around 6:30. My plate consisted of roasted Kabocha Squash, Culture Farmhouse Dill Pickle Sauerkraut, and a can of Trader Joe’s tuna.

We got a pretty busy weekend coming up. Unexpected visitors are staying with us, so it’ll be a bit hard to stick to the plan, but I’m going to try. 🙂

04/27/2012 – Friday’s Workout

Today’s the last day of our 4 week cycle and we finished it off with Turkish Get Ups. There was a new rep scheme this week, so I decided to stick to the 12kg bell. I tried to hurry along and get done with the 5 round, but there was no time left.

Turkish Get Ups: 12kg(1)-12kg(2)-12kg(3)-12kg(4)

It was hard for me to keep good form in the last set. Probably because I was getting tired and anticipating our WOD.

3 Rounds For Time:

400m Run

10/10 KB Snatch(24kg/16kg)

20 Ab-mat Situps

Result: 10:36 RX’d

I knew going all out on this WOD was the only way to get a really good time. I thought I would of been sore from my 5.5 mile run yesterday, but I think it actually helped. My legs weren’t as rusty and I was able to do my best and keep up with the guys in class. I wouldn’t say my form was the best on the KB Snatches, but I got through them without putting the bell down. I was really happy with how I did in this WOD because I knew I was trying my best. Since I’ve fueling myself properly, I think I’ve gained a lot of endurance and strength. It should be interesting to see how I weigh in on Sunday. I’ll re-evaluate what I’m going to do next if I don’t see any body fat loss.

Since today was a training day, therefore high carb day, I wanted to move more weight. I had to go into work today, even though it was my off Friday, so I took advantage of my time there to do some back squats and weighted lunges.

Back Squat: 125(6)-115(8)-105(10)

5×12 Weighted Walking Lunges(30# dumbbells)

Damn, the back squats were difficult. It could be because I didn’t take my time to warmup as much. I got through the sets with 3 minutes rest in between. My goal is to get to a one rep max of 200#. After, I decided to add on weight lunges.

Main, I think the extra workouts really put a number on my appetite because I could not stop eating once I was home. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

04/26/2012 – Good Eats

Hey ya’ll. Hope everyone had a good Thursday. Today is my virtual Friday, but looks like I’ll have to go into work tomorrow to get some stuff done. 😦 Anyways, here’s a quick recap of my good eats.

I started the day with a 5.5 mile run. I was sort of agonizing it. I just felt so stiff and tired on Tuesday when I ran 2 miles, so I was expecting this run to be easy. Luckily, my coworker wasn’t in the mood to race this morning, so we were running a nice and steady pace. The weather was perfect too.

I broke my fast around 11:30 when we went out to Dish Dash. I got the Greek Chicken Salad, no feta, dressing on the side. TASTY!

Once I got back, I was in a meeting all the way till 4:30ish! I wasn’t starving, but I knew I had to eat the rest of my food otherwise I’d be crazy hungry tomorrow. I quickly scarfed down my eggs(2 whole eggs and 3 egg whites) and 4oz beef patty. That was yum too!

I got home, and quickly cooked hubby and Lil’ Munchkin’s dinner. I defrosted some lamb chops and lamb sausage this morning, so all I had to do was pan fry them. Super easy and quick. I dumped my piece of salmon in the sous vide to defrost. As I was cooking the sausage, I was taste testing as well. Bad Steph! Sausage was not on the menu for me, but I probably finished off 2 links. They weren’t big size sausages, so it wasn’t too bad. Just a lot more fat and protein then I was suppose to it. On top of that, I had my salmon and braised kale.

That’s it folks. Off to the gym and work tomorrow(half day). I got a busy weekend ahead with birthday dinners galore. On both sides of the family.

04/25/2012 – Good Eats

I did pretty good today with eating. I pretty much stayed within macro range. After chatting it up with someone on twitter about feeling lethargic after eating so many carbs in one sitting, I decided to cut out the Ezekiel Bread to see if that would help. I made up the carb sources by adding more chestnuts and adding another pure wrap during lunch. Here goes…

I broke my fast at 11. A full 16 hrs of fasting. Pretty good!! My egg white omelet and sweet potato hash were waiting for me with open arms. 🙂

I still felt a little lethargic after eating all those carbs, so I’m not sure if the Ezekiel bread was the culprit. Luckily, I had a meeting after lunchtime and that kept me occupied until 3. I’m sure glad we took a quick break, because I wanted to eat my coconut wraps!! I stuffed one with 2oz of Organic Chicken Breast from Applegate Farms, spinach, and half a small avocado.

Then I stuffed my other wrap with Cranberry Chicken Salad. YUMMY!

That kept me full until I got home. I quickly prepared my roasted veggies. Tonight was the same ole brussel sprouts, kabocha squash, and sweet potatoes. They were all seasoned with salt and pepper. Then, I baked my two tilapia fillets in garlic powder, salt, and pepper for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Delicious once again.

I love high carb days, and I was ready to pass out by 8:30.

BTW, the Nom Nom Paleo App for the iPad has been approved by Apple. It will be waiting for you to download tomorrow morning! It’s definitely a good resource if you are looking for recipes. It’s easy to navigate and very informative! I love it, and will probably be using it every weekend. Maybe even for the dinner party I’ll be hosting.

04/26/2012 – Pull Ups, Christine, and Bench Press

Another good day at CrossFit Palo Alto. The Five Tribe is dwindling a bit. We had about 8 people show up to class today. Where is everyone?!?!

Today we worked on pull ups for the last time in this cycle. Here were my loads:

Pull Ups: BW(5) – BW+12#(3) – BW+15#(3) – BW+20#(1) – BW+25#(1)

I should of made a bigger jump with the dumbbell, but on the 15#x3 I felt a bit weak. Nonetheless, 25# felt good. I wanted to do 30#, but ran out of time. You kidding me, I saw our WOD on the whiteboard and decided to save my energy. LOL

Last time we did Christine was in 2010! So long ago! I got 14:01 but never wrote down the weight that I used.

Christine, 3RFT:

500m Row

12 Deadlifts(BW-113#)

21 Box Jumps

This WOD looks easy on paper, but once you step off of the rower and start deadlifting, you sure feel those hammies. Then onto box jumps?! No rapid fire for me. For the rower, I noticed that if I hold the lever at my chest for a full second, I’ll keep the same average without jumping all over the place. I rowed at consistent 2:15 average on my 3rd round, and I actually counted in my head “1 sec”. Of course, the second round of rowing was the worse. I was all over the place, and of course not fast enough. Nonetheless, I was able to do the workout in under 15 minutes.

Result: 12:56 RX’d

Once I got to work, I quickly did my bench press. Bench press is usually for Fridays, but I plan on doing a long run(5.5 miles) tomorrow, so I don’t want my legs to be too tired. I warmed up with dumb bell bench presses at 40#, 50#, 60#. I used the dumbbell bench press at first because my coworker was using the squat rack. Once he finished, I was ready to get onto the bar and rip out my sets RPT style.

85#(6) – 75#(10) – 65#(14)

There’s a definite improvement from last week. I went to failure with the 85#, and felt my back coming off the bench a bit. I don’t think that’s a good thing.

Anyways, good workouts all around. Hope you are doing something active today! Get out and enjoy the sun while you can.

04/24/2012 – Good Eats

Today was a pretty busy day at work because I had to get a build out and have a document ready by COB. Fun stuff to keep my mind off of food!! 🙂 I got to work at 5:30 and starting working my butt off.

I got a surprise text from hubby!

Totally made my day. Too bad he had to use PTO and waste it on cleaning the house, but I’m grateful. With two boys and tons of toys, it’s hard to keep everything organized and not messy. Thanks hubby! I really appreciate it!

Onto my good eats and a little workout…

My coworker and I got our dose of Vitamin-D even though we were both swamped with work. We went out for a 2mi run to relieve some stress. Ain’t nothing going to hold us back from our personal goals! Make it work people, make it a priority to put yourself first. Everything else will still be there.

I actually ate a couple pieces of chicken breast to break my fast at 11:15. I didn’t want to wait until past 12 to eat, and then not be full and wanting more food after my run. I think it worked.

After our run, we saw another coworker doing tire pulls. So, my crazy mind starting churning and I suggested we do some tire flips across the basketball court. The court is about 100 yards. We went back and forth twice, and we took turns flipping 50 yards each, for a total of 200 yards. Good functional movement.

Once I showered and got back to my desk, I ate my first meal. It was quite yummy! 2 eggs plus 3 egg white, spinach omelet with a 4oz grassfed burger with mushrooms. Delish!

I ate again at 2:30 and scarfed down my chicken salad. Well, I scarfed down the chicken, but not the entire salad. Something about my salads as of late that I’m not into. I need to add more veggies to it.

BUT the good eats came during dinner! Hubby has been wanting a fat a$$ steak for a very long time. I used the SousVide Supreme a couple days ago to cook our GrassFed Rib Eye Steak from Marin Sun Farms. It took 8hrs at 130 degrees. Hubby put it back into the Sous Vide for an hour, and when it was ready, I pan fried it with ghee for 2 minutes on each side.

Look at this piece of heaven!!

I cut up the steak to split between hubs and I. We ate it with braised kale and roasted asparagus.

BOMB DIGGITY! We have another rib-eye steak waiting for us in the fridge. These cuts are a bit expensive but oh so worth it! The steak just melts in your mouth. MMMmmmmMMMM good!

Today was definitely a good day. 🙂

04/23/2012 – Good Eats

Busy day at work means not focusing on food. Yea right?! When do I ever not think about food. SIGH!

Here’s how I fueled my day at work. I ended up breaking my fast at 11AM. That’s probably about 15.5 hrs of fasting. I should really try to go for 16.

11:00AM(B) – 6 egg whites with sweet potato hash and roasted chestnuts. I also had a slice of Ezekiel bread with .5 tbsp of Justin’s Almond Butter.

2:00PM(S) – I had a Cranberry Chicken Salad Wrap as a snack. There’s approximately 4oz of chicken breast and homemade mayo in it.

I got home and quickly got our dinner together by roasting our veggies and baking some Tilapia. The Tilapia was seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. BTW, I’ve been using Spectrum Naturals Organic Coconut Oil Spray when pan-frying or baking fish and it’s been a lifesaver. It doesn’t taste too coconutty either. I don’t like the lingering smell of coconut in my food unless it’s from coconut milk.

6:30PM(D) – Tilapia with roasted Kabocha Squash, brussel sprouts, and broccoli. This dinner was all sorts of awesomeness!! Tilapia is a great source of lean protein without any fat. Eat lean fish on high carb days to minimize the fat macros!

I also munched on 2oz of roasted chicken. I really shouldn’t of done that. I need some self discipline! I hope everyone survived their Monday with clean good eats!

04/23/2012 – Cindy Plus Double Unders + Deadlifts

Today was long metcon day at CFPA. I was ready to get the gunk out as Tim would say.

Cindy AMRAP 20 Minutes

5 Pull ups

10 Push Ups

15 Squats

20 Double Unders

Cindy usually doesn’t have double unders, but I guess Tim wanted us to practice. Speaking of which, I think I got two double unders together on Friday. I only did it twice and I couldn’t do it again. I haven’t been able to do it since either. And now I’m second guessing myself if I really did get it. I just have to keep practicing.

Anyways, I focused on using more of my hips during the pull up and tried not to stop much with the push ups. My push ups suck and depth is not always great. Elbows flare out…all that bad stuff. For the double unders, I put a single in every single one of them, so I definitely got my “cardio” on. I’m happy with my result. Just a few reps shy of the Terminator.

Result: 12 Rounds + 19 reps

Today was a busy day at work, and I wanted to get a lifting session in. I cut out on coffee, to go do some Deadlifts. My warmup lifts went like this…

95#(5) – 135#(5)- 155#(5)

And here were my loads

195#(6) – 195#(8) – 165#(12)

Damn, I was sweating bullets! I did take a quick break from the 165# at rep 7. Not sure if that is allowed, but I did and started back up again. Hope this helps in getting lean and strong!!