the shower coffee episode

I have always struggled with going to bed at a decent time but I had gotten myself on a routine of lights out around 10:30 or 11:00 pm when I was working my "normal" job.  That has completely gone out the window now as I've realized that I don't have to get up at a certain time every morning.  The challenge for the upcoming weeks is to get myself back on a routine and to have some normalcy in the mornings to do paperwork.  \

This morning, for instance, I needed to get up and get moving to the gym because I had a very busy day planned.  I hadn't obeyed the 10:30/11:00 pm rule the night before and I was reaaaaaallly looking/feeling rough this morning at 7.  I went to the gym and ran home to get in the shower.  So.....show of hands....(seriously, do it) .....how many of you have ever had a "shower beer?"  You know, the beer you have when you're getting ready because you don't want to waste that precious time that you could be pre-gaming?  This morning I had a "shower coffee."  You know...the coffee you have when you're getting ready because if you don't have caffeine you might fall asleep standing up?  I have stooped to a new lows.  :)

The gym was rough this morning.  My body was tired and lethargic.  I'd like to forget that today ever happened, except the fact that I went. 

Here's the workout:
Snatch:  5 x 2 @ 85% of 1RM

• I warmed up sufficiently and had zero pain.  Yay!
• I did my sets at 37 lbs.  I * really * wanted to go to 42, but I also didn't want to chance re-injuring myself.  After last week's mental breakdown I needed to work on my confidence, too.  
• Here's a video from a different angle this time:  

Front Squat:  4 x 3 @ 80% of FS1RM

• I did my first set at 60 lbs and then moved to 70 for the final 3.  
• It was apparent that I was soooo tired during this.  I was sluggish.
• The bright spot is that last week when I was doing these I stopped between each rep and today I would knock out all 3, even if they weren't the prettiest.  Progress, at least.

RDL's:  4 x 5 @ 80% of CJ1RM

• 1 set @ 75 lbs
• 4 sets @ 70 lbs

Okay...and let's move on to the exciting part....my outfit! ;)

Black tissue tee from The Limited, Black blazer from NY&C, dark jeans from Express, Tory Burch flats (Thanks, mom!) and a turquoise statement necklace that I think came from Tar-jay a couple summers ago.

100th Post

Alright so the wagon should be circling back around by my place shortly and I'm jumping back on!!  I won't bore you with what you already know this week - I cheated on paleo and I haven't worked out since last week.  Shame on me!!  I got groceries yesterday and my shoulder is a-ok.  I'm ready for you, Wednesday.

I honestly can't say the cheats are all regretful.  Sunday I ate part of a skillet cookie sundae while I was out with friends watching hockey.  I'm not gonna trade that. ;)  Last night I didn't make it to the gym because a really good thing happened with my job and I was trying to sort out the details.  I stayed up late talking to my best friend, too. Today, I treated myself to a mani/pedi and they gave me champagne.  Who cares if I drank 3 glasses and came home and needed a nap?!  I never plan for paleo to take over my life and rob me of the fun things, but typically these things are more spaced out.  

In other news, I have a cute outfit to post.  

Black cardigan sweater from Lululemon - I'm obsessed! I wear the heck out of this thing.  Gray/Silver tissue tee from the Limited.  Pink/salmon jeans from "Tar-jay".  Black wedge booties that I ordered online from Amazon.  I don't remember their brand.  

Randomness:  I have re-discovered heels and I'm loving it.  I am obsessed with the peplum.  I want a pair of mint colored jeans.  What if the Hawks never lose? ;)  Sharpie and I make great roomies.  I need to go dancing - stat!  

So I was just thinking about this post and if I should care that its an "I've struggled" lately theme as opposed to "I'm kicking ass and taking names" theme??  My conclusion is this:  I share all of these things with you guys - the good, the bad, the interesting, the only interesting to me - so it is what it is.  Here's where I am today.  It's not where I'll be tomorrow.  All I know is that things have changed a lot in a year and one week doesn't derail me from any of those accomplishments.  Like I said before - Wednesday, I'm ready for you!!  :)

PaleOMG...I ate Oreos the other night.

So this post will just be a little hodge podge of things from the past couple of days as I haven't really updated since Wednesday.  If you read that post then you won't be surprised that I took Thursday off from working out to give my shoulder a break.  It was a tiny bit sore I noticed that day, but nothing that made me concerned.  I probably just didn't stretch enough or do enough weights at lower reps like I needed to.  Note to self:  plan on spending more time at the gym to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Thursday night I went out with a friend to watch the Hawks game and to grab a drink. :)  Here would be my outfit of the day for that:  

Red blazer from Express, basic white shirt from Victoria's Secret, black cotton/stretch pants from Express, and my black Corso Como boots.  

I wasn't sure if I was going to try to hit the gym on Friday because I had a lot of paperwork to do for work and I was meeting a friend for dinner around 5:30 downtown.  I ended up not going, which was probably a good thing to give myself another day to rest my shoulder.  Today (Saturday) will be my final rest day before I go back to normal activity tomorrow.  I enjoyed the look of the regular WOD for Friday so maybe I'll try to knock that out.  I also need to sign up for yoga this week.  

Also, I'm a little disappointed in my self about this, but I haven't been eating paleo since Wednesday.  I'm not really sure what started my cheating, but I'm sure an alcohol-infused choice was what gave me the first push off the wagon. Starting over today and pretending Oreos didn't happen.  Also, I have to think of what I'm going to give up for Lent, which completely snuck up on me.  Any suggestions??  

Ode to Icy Hot

Well to follow up the awesome day I had lifting on Monday was a shitty day today!  GRRRR!!! It's great for my ego to work in this pattern that way I don't start thinking that I'm doing okay. ;)   As I type this I have an icy/hot patch on my right shoulder and I can tell that it's only going to get more sore as the night goes on.  I'm not exactly sure if the problem was that I didn't warm up enough or if I did something when I was snatching.

At any rate, here's the workout:

• Snatch 5 x 2 @ 75% of 1RM
• I warmed up and everything was feeling really good.  I did a couple of snatches at 27 lbs and I power snatched them without even trying.  I moved to 37 lbs and I "accidentally" power snatched that, too.  I'm not sure if it happened then, but I didn't notice it if it did.  I added 5 more lbs to do the workout sets.  When I went to do this I got the bar to about shoulder height and then I dropped it.  Something psyched me out.  I took off the other weights and went back down to 37 lbs.  I did 4 reps and by the 4th one my right shoulder in the socket was killing me. Time to stop.  :( 
• Front Squat 3 x 5 @ 80% of 1RM
• Looking back in my notebook my last front squat was at 65% and that was 60 lbs.  I did 1 set at 40 lbs to warm up and then jumped to 60 lbs, then 70 lbs, and then 75lbs.  I am having a little trouble not breaking the plane of my back as I'm coming up.  I am tending to dump the weight a little forwards and use my quads more than my glutes.  I really tried to focus hard on keeping my back straight and pushing up with the big muscles.  75 lbs was challenging but I didn't have to make any crazy noises to get it up so not that bad. :)  
• RDL's 4 x 8 @ 65% of CJ1RM
• I lifted a little heavy here and kept 70 lbs on the bar from when I was front squatting.  
• 4 x 30 sec handstand hold 
• No problems...although I'm sure I popped little blood vessels around my eyes per my usual with the handstand.  Good think I have 50 lbs of concealer on hand at all times because I am part raccoon in the mornings.  
• 4 x max effort pushups in 30s 
• I didn't do this because of my shoulder.  :(
• I did break out my muay thai gloves and hit/kick around on the bag a little.  OMG, I am missing this!!  I think I'm going to have to start going to class again.  It felt really awesome to kick something and I'm sure I could use the release I get from it.  I'll have to try dropping in one day during the lunch class to get my fix.  

Yesterday was a rest day, no yoga.  I'm going to sign up for yoga for tomorrow in the am.  Also, I discovered that Nike opened a store on Armitage and that they are offering free classes every day for different things.  You can sign up for up to 4 classes a week - completely free - so I registered with the store.  Now, they don't have a ton of options for times, but for free?...I'll try it out for some variety.  I'm not sure how long this is going to go on so time to capitalized on it now.

A recap of food from yesterday:

Black Tea

Bison burger from DMK (no bun) + sweet potato fries

Salad from Chipotle (no dressing, fajita veggies, mild salsa, guac, and steak - no carnitas available)

2 bananas

A recap of food from today:

Coffee + heavy whipping cream

1 banana

grass-fed beef patty + mushrooms

brussel sprouts

dinner is TBD at this point

L is for Lifting :)

Lifting today was AWESOME!! Days like today are the motivation that keeps me wanting to do this.  First of all, I liked the look of the workout before I ever got to the gym - lots of fave things.  Second, I felt awesome lifting.  Everything was clicking.  I was pushing myself.  It just all around felt incredible. If I were to write a meme about it ....it would be a la Dos Equis guy....."I don't always leave the gym feeling like a total badass, but when I do I go home and blog about it immediately!"  ;)

Here was the workout:

Hang Snatch: 5 x 2 @ 65% of Snatch1RM

• All sets done at 37 lbs.  This went great.  I snatched 37 lbs last week, but only once or twice.  I got this one 10 times and it was easy!!  I didn't video myself, but I have a feeling that since things are going up easier and easier that my form is on par.  This has always been my favorite lift because it just clicks.

Overhead Squat:  5 x 3 @ 75% of Snatch1RM

• I did 4 of the 5 sets at 40 lbs.  The last set I added weight to get to 50 to see if I could do it.  I did the  3 squats with no problem. :)  So the cool thing about this is if I can OHS 50 lbs...that means I can probably snatch 50 lbs!! I'm not ready to give that a try, yet, but psychologically that feels amazing.  My last known 1RM for snatch was about 72 lbs/33kgs.  

Push Jerk/Split Jerk: 4 x 1.2 @ 65% of CJ1RM

• So last week I gauged that 40lbs might be 75% of my 1RM, today I assumed it might be 65%.  I did 1 set at 40 lbs and it felt too easy.  I bumped myself up to 50 for the last 3.  I felt great!  I tried to move faster and make sure my timing helped me to get under the bar.  
• Doing a little math (Wow, I know...I did math? all by myself? Shocking!) if 50 is truly my 65% then around 77 lbs should be my 1RM for now.  Previous 1RM was around 110 lbs/45kgs.  I could clean it, but I struggled with the jerk.  It was mostly a psychological thing I think because people would start watching me.  

Chin ups:  Max reps x 3 sets

• I couldn't get this in because the rubberband was MIA.  I looked all over for it.  I may have to invest in one myself because that sucks.  It will be my intention to do pushups later at home to try to work on some tricep strength instead.

The food log for the day goes a little something like:

• 1 cup of coffee w/ heavy cream
• 2 scrambled eggs
• 2 pc of uncured bacon
• small portion of strawberries and kiwi

I would prefer not to talk about my food choices from yesterday.  My evening is a blur of buffalo chicken dip + chips, brownies, and Stella Artois. :)  

I don't have to go out today for work so I'm dressed like a slob kabob.  No picture necessary. :)

The only other big announcement I have is that I got a new roommate yesterday. :)  Here's a picture of him in the bathroom.  

....and here he is laying around on the couch helping me work....

His original name was Boo, but I'm trying out some other things to see how I feel.  I'm really leaning towards calling him Sharpie.  So far we're getting along great, except he thinks that I need to wake up a few times in the night to give him attention.  He will soon learn that I don't give a shit how cute you are....that is not acceptable!!! :P

Crab Cakes

I think that I am the self-proclaimed expert on crab cakes in the city of Chicago.  After several missions to find the very best ones I can, with confidence, reveal my results this far:

1. Coobah's - Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict
2. Joe's Stone Crab House - Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes
3. Glen's Diner - Crab Cakes
4. Marmalade - Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict
5. Whole Foods Crab Cakes (I made myself)
6. Ann Sather's  - Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict  

Clearly my research will not stop here, but I've been working hard to try to cover this topic for you guys. :)  As you can guess, I had some crab cakes tonight at Joe's.  I'm not sure they were 100% paleo, but they weren't breaded so I didn't think they were that bad.  I also had a salad and a couple glasses of wine.  Earlier in the day I finished off the rest of the baked butternut squash and I also had an apple.  Also for the sake of full disclosure, I cheated tonight and had a few bites of Mike's dessert.  Oh well.  I know that Monday will end up being the OFFICIAL, official first day anyways. :)

Today was a rest day due to my schedule.  I'm going to do yoga tomorrow morning and then I have a few errands to run before heading over to a Superbowl party.  My back has been a little sore the past couple days so another day without lifting will probably be good for me.  #mybodyisold

Strangely enough I weighed 130.4 today.....I'm not sure what made me weigh myself, but I thought that was interesting b/c I was 133 yesterday.

I am going to post a couple of links that I found interesting:

http://www.crossfitla.com/cms/index.php/site/learning_to_dance/#When:03:30:10Z

http://m.mensfitness.com/entry/view/id/17501/i/2/p/0/?KSID=d01c025ca5cb2651154477ef53b4c3d6

and finally my outfit....

Black tank from Target, white button up dress shirt from CK outlet, black blazer from NY&C, black leggings which I am obsessed with from Lululemon, and black CorsoComo boots.  I must also mention, although you can't see it too well, my necklace is a Meshu that my BFF had made for me.  I'm in love with it!! 

Paleo - Day 1

Honestly, who starts doing diet and lifestyle changes on a Friday....a specially the Friday before SuperBowl Sunday???  Me.  I'm gonna throw it out there that should I blackout on Sunday evening for a few hours I should not be held accountable for any buffalo chicken dip I may eat.  Let's hope that doesn't happen, but just. in. case. it does Monday is a new day. ;)  

So, here were my measurements for 2/1/13.  I didn't bother to go back and find the old post with last year's measurements....they're so 2012.  :)  If you want to look it up then you're free to, but just know that I lost a bunch of weight and inches.  

This morning I weighed exactly 133 lbs when I woke up.

Arms:

• Right bicep, relaxed:  10"
• Left bicep, relaxed: 9.75"

Waist:

• @ smallest point: 26.5"
• @ belly button: 28.5"

Thighs/Hips:

• Right thigh, relaxed: 21.5"
• Left thigh, relaxed: 22"
• Hips: 38"

Waist to Hip Ratio:  .70

I've been back in the gym regularly since 1/7/13, so I'm going to continue my routine of lifting and then trying to do yoga as some active rest on my off days.  I think I might start bringing my gloves with me to the gym and doing a little kickboxing on my own.  I am really missing that and I don't want to totally lose my skills.  

As far as food goes for today, I have had 2 bananas and I finished off the roast/veggies that I made earlier in the week.  I skipped Starbucks today (yay willpower!) and for dinner I had some left over chicken stirfry and some baked butternut squash with cinnamon.  

Over the past year I've become a big fan of reading other people's blogs....no surprise there.  I want to see what other people are doing and I clearly want to make sure my blog is the best. .....just kidding.....kinda ;)  Anyways, some of my favorite blogs are doing "Outfits of the Day" which I realize has absolutely nothing to do with paleo + health......or does it?  Stretch your thinking for a second and come on this journey into my mind where wearing cute clothes and feeling good about the way things look are a direct result of my lifestyle changes.  You following me?  Okay, good.  I think this is the perfect way to 1) show off feeling confident about the way I look and 2) to put to use all the outfit ideas that I pin on Pinterest.  #addictedmuch? #pinningcouldbemyfulltimejob  :)   So, here's today's outfit:  

Details:  These jeans are from H&M and I got them over 5 years ago, but I couldn't wear them for probably 4 of those 5 years because they didn't fit.  They're a little big now!;  navy top is from Express; Sweater was a Target find a few years ago, and my shoes (which I love) are tan suede Steve Madden booties.