US Wellness

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Tuesday

I'll lead with my semi-exciting news.  I weighed myself this morning - with pj's on - and I was 141.4.  That's good for having been back on a clean diet again for 4 or 5 days.  I'm sure I will be all sorts of excited when I'm under 140.  I think one of the things that is most exciting is being able to shop for new clothes.  I want to rid my closet of all of the things that are too big and just not go back there.  It makes me unhappy just to think about wearing those clothes. 

If you remember, one of those goals was to have white jeans for the summer.  That'll be happening once I figure out what store makes the best ones for me.  On a side shopping note...what the heck is up with Target's clothes?!  I hate them.  They are my usual favorite place to shop for things for cheap.  (I have a clothing problem.)  Lately, I want to go back to the outlet mall in Aurora and cause some trouble there.  If I had my way I'd just own everything from J Crew and be done with it. 

Occasionally, I find that I get once peice of clothing that I want in my mind and I'm honed in on it until I get it.  Right now, its a long sleeved Lululemon shirt.  Yeah, yeah, I know, its ridiculously over priced yoga stuff - BUT, its hella comfortable, made well, and all of the pants make my butt look good. (Which is obviously most important.)  I drug Mark to the store the other night in Lincoln Park, only to find out that they closed at 7.  WTH?!  I thought I'd outsmart Lulu and find one on Ebay, but they really weren't any more inexpensive there. 

I went to CF last night even though I wasn't very excited about it.  I'm not sure if I'm getting bored or what.  I'm still making gains on my lifts so I'm not really sure of the reason.  We've done similar workouts before...snatch, hang clean, and, and front squat.  The percentage scheme was similiar for all 3: 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 80 - all x's 2.  My front squats were the worst and I broke form and it was stressful on my back.  In my defense, this was like 45 kg's...so almost 100 lbs...and that's a lot for me.  I've noticed that I'm not making gains on the bigger squat movements like I am on the clean and jerk, snatch, ohs, etc.  I wonder why that is?  I've been around 100 lbs now for a while. 
  • 85% of my snatch is 24 kgs
  • 85% of my hang clean is 37 kgs
  • 85% of my front squat is 45 kgs
Today is a rest day and an "I don't understand the WCCF workout" day.  It's 7 cycle thing with a minute of work and a minute of rest after each thing.  I just don't understand it. 

Food has been back in check as I mentioned above.  This morning I had egg "cupcakes" as I call them.  They were little quiches made in a muffin tin.  For lunch I had....wait for it.....wait for it.......a BURGER and some avocado. Not sure what we're having tonight for dinner. 

Monday, March 26, 2012

Sheepish Blog Post

Okay, so I am a big, fat liar.  It's not on purpose, though.  Blogging falls off my list of things to do when I'm not excited about my blog topics.  :(  I really don't know what to do to get it back. On the bright side, I did eat paleo this weekend - finally - I strung together several days in a row without cheats. 

Food doesn't taste as good and I'm not sleeping very well.  I find myself thinking that only a few things sound good when Mark asks me what I want for dinner ...usually this is a burger.  I can't even begin to tell you how many burgers we've eaten in the past few weeks.  Both times we've eaten out its been...DMK or Burger Bar (I'll review below).  I've been on this burger thing since before I went to China.  Don't read this like the only thing I'm eating is burgers and nothing else.  I'm eating other things.  Its just the only thing that really tastes good is a burger.  Yesterday, we looked through a paleo cookbook and found a few things.  Mark made mahi mahi fish tacos last night and they were pretty good.  I can't remember all of the other things we picked out, but the pictures peaked my interest.  Let's hope they're good. 

The past couple of weeks I've had horrible sleep.  Partially, this is my fault because I'm not winding down to go to bed until 11:30 pm.  Sleeping 6 hours on the regular is not working for me.  I am having to down huge cups of coffee.  Even 7 hours last night did not make my body happy.  I'm convinced that we need a new mattress. 

I went to CF on Thursday night.  The workout was light.  It was OHS, which I PR'd on and then a strict press.  Strict press was much tougher for some reason.  After that I did pull-ups and box jumps.  I didn't go to CF on Saturday.  I wanted to go to the lake to run/walk, but that didn't end up happening.  Sunday's plan was to go to open gym at CF, but again, it didn't happen.  Back to the grind this week, I guess.

I keep thinking that I need to take my pictures again, but it just seems like whenever I'm thinking about it I can't do anything at that moment. Then, I forget.  At this point, maybe we'll wait until the beginning of next month.  I doubt my measurements have changed much as my weight's been back up and back down again.  I haven't weighed myself since the other day and I was 144.  I would assume that since I was good over the weekend that its probably the same or maybe a little less.  I haven't attempted my "skinny, 143lb" pants lately.  I should do that.  I have noticed that it is infinitely easier to get dressed in the morning when I don't have to worry about what fits me.  Everything I own fits me and lots of things are big.

As I mentioned above we've eaten out twice recently - at 2 burger places.  Last week we went to Burger Bar.  I had the forgeddaboutit' burger.  It's a grass fed patty, then tomatoes, procuitto, and some amazing sauce (probably not paleo exactly).  I didn't have the bun, but added sweet potato fries.  As you can imagine, its not hard to eat paleo at a burger place.  On Saturday night we ate dinner at DMK, which is one of my favorite places.  I had my usual, bison burger with onions and goat cheese.  We shared some sweet potato fries.  Two thumbs up for both places for taste and ease of paleo ordering.  We will definitely go back, especially while I'm addicted to burgers.  





Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Recommitment

After much discussion, Mark and I both agree that we need to recommit to our resolutions. We've leaked and strayed enough that we're unhappy with how things are going. Without planning for the week, we often cheat. One of us *cough* Mark *cough* eats candy at work even!!! ;) Nevertheless, we'll blog again and hold each other accountable.

We drug ourselves to oly tonight after a quick nap. For it being hot and me being tired I lifted pretty well. It was a light workout with us only getting to our 90% of clean and jerk and back squat. We worked up to the 80% on hang snatch. Mark can let you know how his went. :)

Tomorrow I'll blog about food and get back into my posts.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Setback

I started this post on Friday and never got a chance to post it....

FRIDAY - 3/16
I've been debating whether or not to share this information with the blog for a couple of reasons.  I've been doing so well and I don't want to have to admit publicly that something has gone wrong this week.  But since I've tried to be brutally honest on here I've decided that I'll its only right that I do.

I'm sure there's a number of things playing into this, but I weighed myself this morning and I was 145.8.  I freaked.  I nearly cried.  I complained and I didn't listen to a word Mark had to say when he was calming me down.  That's a MONTH's worth of progress gone this week - if that's true.  Now that I'm slightly calmer I'm trying to figure out what's going on.  I had some cheat foods this week - pad thai, pizza, and wings + fries.  However, to legitimately gain that much weight I'd have to have eaten like 15,000 extra calories, which I did not.  I have been very stressed.  Yesterday, I was very thirsty.  Maybe some of it is water weight?  Either way, I feel terrible about it.  I feel like I've totally failed at this right now.  I'm completely embarassed and frustrated.  I've worked so hard and it confuses me that I went on vacation and had cheat foods and didn't work out much and I didn't fluxuate, but here I've been working out and this happens?  How is this possible?

I'm sure you know where this is going....I'm going back to paleo without cheats.  I cannot have come this far to only to slip back to where I was.  It's just not happening.

MONDAY - 3/19
Okay, so to update my weight first yesterday I was 141.8.  I felt relieved that it was back down and Mark was more convinced that it was just an outlier.  Maybe it was because of some salty food and water weight? I have no idea.  I'm just glad I'm going in the right direction again.  We're definitely going back to paleo still though. 

Saturday was an OLY "meet" at the gym.  I was insanely nervous about doing this and almost skipped going to the gym all together.  Even though I didn't do my lifts in front of the entire group (nor did I want to) I got PR's on snatch and clean and jerk. 

  • Snatch: My previous PR was 26 kg and Saturday I put up 28 kgs.  That's 61.6 lbs. 
  • Clean and Jerk: My previous PR was 37 kg and Saturday I put up 41 kg.  That's 90.2 lbs. 
I was really excited when I finished that I'd put up good numbers!!

Just to wrap things up I'll just say that things have been so busy that its been really hard to update.  I think part of my issue this weekend was the weight thing, but I've relaxed a bit.  We also hit up Burger Bar this weekend and I ate paleo so I'll review that asap. :)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

80's Music

I love 80's.  Mark and I are currently rocking out to Def Leppard.  We are horrible singers, but we try really hard.  :) 

Food was not too good today.  We didn't wake up in time to make breakfast and by 10:30 am I was STARVING.  I microwaved my chili left overs around 12.  In the afternoon, I needed a coffee and so I made a run to the gas station to get that and some nuts to snack on.  For dinner, which we just finished, I had a buffalo burger and some nuts.  I passed on my broccoli because it just didn't look good.  To be honest, nothing really sounded good nor looks good.  I'm in a food funk. 

The gym went well today.  There is a mock meet on Saturday so we're gearing up to peak then.  Tonight's workout seemed short, but it was heavy.

Clean and Jerk -  %'s - 60 x 2, 65 x 2, 70 x 2, 75 x 2, 85 x 1, 90 x 1, 95 x 1
  • My original 1RM was 33kg, but tonight I put up 37 kg pretty easy.  That's 81.4 lbs.
  • Other lifts: 20kg, 28kg, 30kg, 35kg, 37kg (x 2)
  • No shoulder pain at all!!!
Backsquat - %'s - 60 x 3, 65 x 3, 70 x 3, 75 x 3, 85 x 3, 90 x 3, 95 x 3
  • Not sure what my 1RM is exactly, but I based my %'s off of 110.
  • Squats were are follows: 35kg, 35 kg, 40 kg, 45kg, 47kg, 48kg
  • 48 kg is approximately 105 lbs so probably on target with my 110 max
Clean Pulls - %'s - 95 x 2, 105 x 2, 105 x 2, 95 x 2
  • 26kg, 35kg, 35kg, 26 kg
  • This was ok.  It's a funny movement so I'm not the greatest at it yet.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Neglect

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog the past few days.  I'm not really sure why that's been happening.  I guess I haven't felt like anything I've been doing has been exciting enough to share??  In no way is my next statement a criticism of Mark, merely an observation:  When he's less serious about this stuff its easier for me to be the same way.  Mark's not eating a paleo diet, nor is he as motivated about the gym.  It's definitely infectious, but by no means an excuse for me.  I still have goals.  I need to remember that.


I promised myself that I was going to go back to strict paleo this past weekend and that hasn't totally happened.  Sunday I had several desserts at Becca's shower and today I had pizza.  Starting tomorrow, I am committed to being back on track and not cheating.  I'm guessing my weight won't change too much this week if my metabolism is up, but it won't be a week of progress.  


I couldn't believe it the other day when I got on the scale and it said 140.  I think I said, "oh my god, no way!" about 80 times in a row.  I can only imagine my excitement when its under 140 for the first time in years. :)


Monday's CF workout was good:


Snatch: 60% x 2, 65%x 2, 70% x 2, 75% x 2, 80% x 2, 85% x 2, 75% x 2
  • I started at 15kg and worked my way up to 26kg for my 80%, which if you stalk me and my percentages you would know is my 1RM.  I put it up easy, but when I told Cori it was a tie for my PR she said to stop.  I didn't do my 85% or 75% again.
Front Squat:  60% x 2, 70% x 2, 80% x 2, 85% x 1, 90% x 1, 95% x 1
  • My FS 1RM is 101 lbs.  For my 85% I did 99lbs 3x.  My legs were spent after that so I finished up there.  But, 99lbs 3x probably means my 1RM is 110?
Snatch Pull:  95% x 2, 105% x 2, 105% x 2, 95% x 2
  • I warmed up with 24kg because I had never done the movement before.
  • Then, I did 30kg, 34kg, 34kg, and 30kg again.


I'm noticing that usually when I post I'm really excited to share my accomplishments, but not so much today.  I'm not writing as much, nor checking my notebook.  :(  







Sunday, March 11, 2012

Results

The results from February:


My initial reaction to my following stats was that of disappointment.  I didn't do as well this month as I had last.  But, then Mark and I were talking about the month and realizing that I missed a lot of days of training.  I was out of town for work in the middle of the month and then a week or so later I was in China.  My diet was not strict at all.  Keeping that in mind, I'd say I did ok.  I'll post pictures tomorrow.


  • Upper Arms (at bicep, relaxed):
    • Left: 11"     /     10.75" /        10.75"
    • Right: 11"     /     11" /        10.75"
  • Waist (at belly button):
    • 33"      /      28.5"   /          28"
  • Waist (at narrowest point):
    • 28"     /     26.25"/    26" 
  • Hips:
    • 41.5"     /     39" /   39"
  • Legs (mid-thigh, relaxed):
    • Left:   23"     /     21.75"/      21"
    • Right:  23"     /     21.75"/     20.25"
  • Waist to Hip Ratio:
    • .67      /      .67     /    .66
  • Weight:
    • 152.4     /   145/  140.2   <---- Umm, what?!  I was completely shocked.  

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Flu Bug

Skip this first paragraph if you aren't interested in the bug that's put Mark and I under the weather this week.  I started feeling squeamish last Thursday before I left China, but after I got home I rested all weekend and started the week feeling tired, but ok otherwise.  Mark also started feeling weird the night before he left China, the following Tuesday.  We both had similar symptoms - stomach cramps, headaches, and just a general blah feeling.  We chalked it up to the food/water in China getting to our systems.  Back in Chicago, my symptoms returned and Mark's have continued.  We wake up most days with headaches that come and go all day long and stomach cramps.  Now that we've been home a while, I think that maybe we've had a low grade flu or virus.

We didn't go to CF tonight, just to give ourselves another day of rest.

Food Log for 3/8:

  • Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs
  • Snack: blueberries
  • Lunch: Chipotle salad with chicken
  • Snack: mozzarella cheese 2 pcs
  • Dinner: hamburger with egg
Today wasn't the best food day for me.  Its evident that when we don't plan ahead its harder to be more strict with paleo.  

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Hey so I'm back from Hong Kong and decided I should try to blog more regularly again. I have been terrible about it.

I ate like crap in Hong Kong. I ate usually some rice based meal and pretty often went to burger king for lunch. I blame convenience mostly.  They spoke decent english there, but it was hard enough to order without trying to specify ingredients etc. Most menus had a ton of pictures and we'd just point.

Breakfasts at the hotel were probably the easiest to control. I usually ate an omelette with peppers, onions, bacon, ham, and cheese. I also usually had smoked salmon and some sausage and whatever veggies they had plus some pineapple. I would also drink a few small glasses of whole milk (not paleo I know but I want to get used to dairy again and start introducing it).  There may have been a few times in there where I had a muffin or pancakes too, but that's neither confirmed nor denied :)

Lunch while at work was always either traditional cantonese in the cafeteria at the airport office or in the food court at the terminal. I would usually get either some thai dish, dumplings or burger king (when I had had my fill of rice dishes, which occured a lot in the last week). Again, not one of those was paleo, but oh well. I was off the wagon for most of the trip.

Dinner was all over the board. I went to outback twice (once w erica). We did some traditional chinese, and a few days early on I didn't even eat dinner cuz I was so jetlagged, I would fall asleep before dinner and sleep til 2 am. Of course, the problem with that was I was then wide awake til work and it was a pretty vicious cycle that took me a couple days to break.

Oh well. Back to the norm now that I'm home. It was a fun trip i guess, but two and a half weeks was a lil long. I'm glad to get home and get back on track with training and food.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Crazy Weight and a PR

Okay, so I've gone from the girl who didn't want to weigh herself all month when this started to the girl that weighs herself daily.  This morning I got on the scale when I first got up and I was 141 flat.  It's been 5 years since I've been this weight and I'm so excited about that.  I've noticed that I feel myself excited, but not because of a new body...like I've never been thin, but the return of my old one....the way I always think of myself.  I'm back to my old self...and maybe a bit better since I was not lifting before.  It's a good feeling to know that I'm not going back there, bc paleo seems to work for me.

So lots of awesome stuff happened at CF today.  I did the OLY wod and I was very tired [aka jetlagged] for the first part. Here was the workout:

Snatch: 60 x 2, 65 x 2, 70 x 2, 75 x 2, 80 x 1, 85 x 1, 70 x 2  (%'s)
  • I was tired and sluggish during this.  I did manage to put up 25 kg or 55 lbs for my 85%...which looking back is 1 kg/2.2lbs off of my PR from before I went to China.  Not too bad when I look at it that way. 
Hang Clean: 60 x 2, 65 x 2, 70 x 2, 75 x 2, 80 x 1, 85 x 1, 70 x 2 (%'s)
  • I'm still struggling with this a bit.  I keep jumping my hips foward a bit when I'm exploding up.  I did manage a good couple of reps towards the end.  I easily cleaned 77 lbs tonight. 
Front Squat:  60 x 2, 65 x 2, 70 x 2, 75 x 2, 80 x 1, 85 x 1, 70 x 2 (%'s)
  • I lifted heavier on this than I intended too, but I PR'd so oh well.  My partner was lifting heavier and I think that motivates me to do more than what I do when I'm alone.  For my 85% I got 101 lbs/46 kgs.  Before China I PR'd at 44kg or 97 lbs.  :)
In other good news, I did some pull ups during the warm up with a 1/2" band.  I got about 5 before my arms were cashed, but that's a new thing for me.  It will happen by the end of the month.  I will have at least one strict one. 

I'm going to be so sore tomorrow!! I probably won't do the wod b/c Mark will be home by then and I want to see him.  I could probably use a rest day, too.

Food was eh today.  I had a fried egg and 2 pc of bacon for breakfast.  For lunch I went to Buono Beef because I was craving a chicken salad.  I got the buffalo ranch one without corn or cheese.  Yes, there are tiny tortilla strips in there and buffalo sauce so not ENTIRELY paleo, but I wanted it.  Dinner hasn't really happened tonight - I got home, went to CF, ran to Whole Foods, and then talked to Erinn on the phone.  I'll probably graze before I go to bed.  Mark's home tomorrow though so he'll start cooking again. :)

Gotta go! It's late and I need to shower.  I got this new macadamia oil hair mask thing and I really like it so I want to use it again today.  <-- Oh, the simple things that I enjoy!! :)

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Feb Progress and March Goals

What did I want to do in February?  A little cut and paste job from a month ago:

So, to get there I need goals for February:
1) Weigh under 143
2) Get my guy-style pushup
3) Add at least 10 lbs to all of my lifts
4) Do Fran again in under 7 mins with 40lb thrusters and a smaller band than before
5) Do Zumba & Yoga on Sundays


How did I do? 

1)  CHECK!  I'm 142.4 today.  I was 143.8 yesterday, but I'm back down today so I'm going to consider this met.
2)  CHECK!  I accomplished this right before I went to China.  I can't string a bunch of them in a row yet, but that's ok!  Now to refine them and work on doing more.
3)  CHECK!  I put more than 10 lbs on my snatch, OHS, press,  and clean and jerk.  We didn't really work on back squat this month, so I can't say for sure on this.  I only did front squat once and I PR'd but I wasn't a max effort.  The last time I maxed I was at 92 lbs.  I easily put up 97 lbs the other night so I can assume that I can do 5 more lbs on top of that. 
4)  I didn't have the opportunity to try Fran again. I hope to try it again this month.  I did accomplish some pull ups on a smaller band this month so that's progress there.
5)  CHECK! I Zumba'd before I left for China and we went to yoga also.  We were gone for 2 of the Sundays - in Atlanta and the recent trip.

4 out of 5  - Not too shabby.

What to work for in March?

1)  a strict pull up
2)  10 push ups strung together
3)  A regular WOD a week or yoga + OLY
4) Average 7 hours of sleep per night
5) Return to paleo - another pretty strict month

I am having more trouble with adjusting my sleep patterns back to normal now that I'm home than I did in China.  Both nights I've been back I've struggled to sleep before 2:30 am.  Last night I ended up taking a tylenol pm around 3:30 am.  I wanted to stay in bed this morning and skip yoga, but I decided I should go.  I'm going to fight the urge to nap today and I will be taking another Tylenol pm tonight EARLY so I guarantee myself some zzzz's.  I should cook today, go through all of my emails, and do laundry. 

Yoga went okay today.  I felt tired and tight, but that was expected.  Mark and I signed up for next Sunday already.  I like this yoga studio b/c its not so hot that I want to die.  Today it was warm enough to feel good.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Braving the Scale

I wondered on Facebook this morning the last time I'd been in bed since noon......probably a couple of years, if not longer?  Is that weird? At any rate, it was wonderful and I probably would have slept longer but a text beep woke me up.  I decided that it was time for a shower.  I know this is going to sounds so gross, but the last time I showered was....Thursday night in Hong Kong.  I traveled Friday and all I wanted to do was sleep when I got home.  I don't know what it is about showers but they always make me feel good.  That's probably why I like to stay in there forever.  It's too bad that we don't have endless hot water here anymore - 30 mins just doesn't cut it sometimes. 

After my shower, I was standing at the sink and I could feel the eyes of the scale buring a hole in my back.  I didn't really want to get on it.  First I told myself, "No.  Don't do it. Give yourself a week to get back on track."  The scale continued its stare down.  I started to crack.  "Well...maybe it won't be that bad?  I need to know what damage I did."  The scale quickly won that show down.  I got on.  "Let's hope for 145 or under. I'll be "happy" with that."  ....143.8!  (Only a pound heavier than when I left.)  Not bad for all of the bad things I ate and for not really working out.  "I blame United for this and all of their stupid desserts,"  I added to relieve myself of any responsibility.  :)

So, I slept through CF today.  I woke up at 8 to use the bathroom and I thought about staying up for about .4 seconds.  I added myself to the waitlist for yoga tomorrow morning at 10 am, so I hope I get into that.  I think the sweating and stretching would do me good.  I guess if that doesn't work out I'll go to Zumba at 11. 

I went to Whole Foods last night to get some groceries.  I actively tried to pick out more veggies along with my usual fruit staples.  I've been on a burger kick lately so I got 3 lbs of grass fed beef to make more of those.  I've been craving cheese so I got a little bit of fresh mozzarella, too. Eggs, bacon, and a few other odds and ends rounded out my shopping trip.  I'm feeling really uninsipired when it comes to recipes.  I'll try to find some new and exciting (read: easy) recipes. 

Until I get motivated to get back out of bed I'll be right here watching HGTV.  :)

Friday, March 2, 2012

Back Home

It's good to be back home.  I arrived in Chicago around 11:30 am and after going through customs and taking the blue line back into the city I crawled into bed for a nap around 1:30 pm.  I hadn't slept well the night before - I always feel like I'm going to oversleep something important....like a flight.  Mark and I went to breakfast at 7 am and then took the train out to the HK airport so I could try to get on the non-stop flight home.  With the flight leaving at 11 am (HK time) they cleared the standby list at 10:15 am and I had to hurry to get through immigration and security.  I made it on the flight, but had to be in coach. I can entertain myself, but the ability to lie flat in the first leg of the trip was crucial.  Also, if my Nook wouldn't have frozen on BOTH trips...that would have been awesome!! 

Another reason I'm glad to be back home is my ability to control my food better.  I know that I made choices this week to stray from paleo and that's not what I'm refering to.  There were times when I wanted to eat differently and couldn't.  For example, on the way home there weren't many food options.  Pretzels were our first snack and then a chicken dish with rice and a roll was served.  The portions were small, so I felt obligated to eat my roll and also the dessert just to fill up.  Midway through the flight they gave us a snack back with a banana, tort, and crackers inside.  Again, not knowing if they would feed us again until we were close to Chicago, I ate it.  I needed to snack again before breakfast so I snagged another banana from the kitchen.  For breakfast, they gave us eggs, a sausage link, and 2 hashbrowns and a pastry.  (Honestly, United...what's up with all the desserts?!)  I'm happy to be able to go back to my routine.  I know I traveled and my body clock was off for days, but I felt like my change in diet made me sluggish and hungry all the time. 

Another thing I'm looking forward to is going back to CF.  I want to be back on track with things.  We'll do measurements and etc when Mark gets home.  I doubt I could do all of that myself anyways - accurately.  Tonight, I'm going to lay low and try to catch up on my sleep.  I might venture out to get some groceries and get out of the house, but not much else. :)  I'm totally okay with that. 

Looking back on the trip I'm really excited to have had the opportunity to go.  Overall, traveling wasn't bad and China was fun.  I was glad to see Mark and to spend the day with him on Wednesday when he took the day off.  :)